Refunds.

Cancelling before painting starts

Nothing is charged when you send the order form. We read your photograph and reply within one working day with an honest read and a plan, and only then send a payment link. Up to that point there is nothing to cancel and nothing to refund — if you decide against it, you can simply tell us, or say nothing at all.

Once you have paid, the studio starts as soon as the payment clears. If you change your mind before a copyist has begun work, write to us and we refund everything you have paid, in full. No fee, no reason needed. That window is short — often a day or two — so tell us straight away rather than sitting on it.

Why there is no change-of-mind refund once painting has begun

Each painting is made to order to your own specification: your photograph, your size, your instructions about what to keep and what to leave out. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, the fourteen-day cancellation right that covers most goods bought online does not apply to goods made to a consumer’s specification or clearly personalised. A commission is exactly that, so once work has started we cannot refund it because you have changed your mind. The painting has no second buyer.

That is the honest trade-off for something made only because you asked for it. It is also why we spend the first working day being blunt about whether your photograph will make a good painting. It is far easier to say no before the paint is on the canvas than after.

If the approval photograph is not right

Before anything ships, we send you a photograph of the finished painting. If something is wrong — a likeness that has not landed, a colour that is off, a background you would rather was not there — tell us and we keep painting until it is right. There is no extra charge for that, and no limit we hold over you. Nothing leaves the studio until you have approved it.

This is the stage at which changes get made, so look at the photograph properly and send everything you want altered in one go. It is quicker for you and it gives the copyist a single clear brief to work to.

Damage in transit, or a painting that is not what you approved

Paintings ship rolled in a tube. Tubes travel well, but couriers are couriers. If your painting arrives damaged, or if what arrives is materially different from the photograph you approved, we replace it or refund you in full — your choice, not ours.

Tell us within a few days of delivery and keep the tube and the packaging until the claim is settled, as the courier sometimes asks to see them. If we need the original painting back, we pay the cost of returning it.

Delivery is included in the price wherever in the world you are. Any import duty or tax charged by the country the painting is delivered to is separate from delivery and is yours to pay, so it is not something we can refund.

How to claim

Email us with your order reference and, if the painting has arrived damaged, photographs. Pictures settle a claim far faster than descriptions do — they usually mean we can act the same day instead of writing back and forth. Send:

• the whole painting, laid flat in daylight
• a close-up of the damage or the problem
• the tube and packaging, if those are damaged too

Your statutory rights are unaffected

Nothing on this page limits your legal rights. If goods are faulty, not as described, or not of satisfactory quality, you have rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 that no policy of ours can shorten or remove.

The exemption for bespoke and personalised goods in the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 applies only to the fourteen-day change-of-mind cancellation right. It has no bearing on a painting that turns up faulty, damaged, or different from what you approved.