PET MEMORIAL PORTRAITS, HAND-PAINTED IN OIL FROM YOUR PHOTOGRAPH
A hand-painted pet memorial portrait from a photo you already have: an original oil painting of your dog or cat on linen canvas. Not a file, not a print — a physical object, built up in layers of paint, that will still be here in a hundred years. Painted in my studio in Rzeszów, in southern Poland, then packed, insured, and shipped to your door.
Prices start at $475 / £355 / €415 and include insured worldwide express shipping with tracking. The full table is further down this page.
Who Will Be Painting It
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably lost your dog or cat, or you know it’s coming. I won’t dwell on that. What I can do is tell you plainly who I am, so you can decide whether to trust me with the photograph.
My name is Klaudyna Hady. I hold an MFA with honors from the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, and I’ve painted in oil for most of my life. In 2017 I was one of 125 painters chosen from around 5,000 applicants worldwide to hand-paint the individual frames of Loving Vincent, the Oscar-nominated film made entirely of oil paintings on canvas. I worked on the same directors’ second painted feature, The Peasants, in 2023. You don’t have to take my word for any of that — the credits are on IMDb. More than 150 of my paintings are in private collections.
Everything below is about one thing: a hand-painted pet memorial portrait from a photo you already have. Prices, timelines, and the painting itself at each stage are all on this page, so you can see what you’d be paying for before you write to me. If you want the longer version of my background and film work, it is on the about page.
If you found this page searching for a rainbow bridge oil painting commission, you’re in the right place — with one caveat. I paint the animal as they actually were, from your photograph. I don’t add wings, halos, clouds, or a shaft of light unless you ask, and I’ll tell you honestly if I think it will date badly. Most people, once they see the first sketch, find they wanted the dog they knew rather than a symbol.
Dogs and Cats, Painted With the Same Attention
A cat portrait takes the same care as a dog portrait: the same photograph review, the same painting time, the same price. I mention it because nearly every memorial portrait page online is written for dog owners, with cats added in parentheses.
They are different animals to paint. A dog’s coat mostly reads as directional masses of fur following the muscle underneath. A cat’s is layered — a soft undercoat under longer guard hairs that catch the light — so I build it up in more layers, each one thinner. A cat’s eyes are also proportionally larger and its face flatter, which leaves less room for error around the eyes and nose.
If what you’re looking for is a memorial painting of a cat you’ve lost, made from the one usable photo you have, that’s exactly the work described here — not a variation on it.
Working From the Photograph You Have — Not the One You Wish You Had
Almost everyone who writes to me about a memorial oil painting of a dog they’ve lost opens with an apology about the photograph. It’s old. It’s blurry. It was taken on a phone eight years ago, indoors, from above. Sometimes it’s the only one that shows their face at all.
That’s normal. Photographs of animals who have died are rarely the photographs we would have taken if we had known.
Two things help. First, a painting isn’t an enlargement of a photograph. I’m rebuilding a head, a coat, and an expression — not copying pixels — and a painter can pull form and character out of an image a printer could do nothing with. Second, I can work from more than one source: if the clearest view of your dog’s face is in one photo and the pose you love is in another, I’ll use both. That’s routine on memorial commissions, not a special request.
Send whatever you have. I’ll tell you honestly whether it’s workable before you pay anything.
In practice: you email me the photographs, I look at them, and I reply within two business days with an honest yes, no, or “yes, if we combine these two.” There’s no charge and no obligation at that stage.
If you’re choosing between several photos, these are the four things I actually look for, in order:
- The eyes are in focus. Everything else can be soft. If the eyes are sharp, I have the animal.
- Taken at their eye level, not from standing height. A photo shot down at a dog flattens the skull and lengthens the muzzle.
- Daylight, ideally not direct sun. A window on an overcast day is the best light most people have at home.
- The head fills a reasonable part of the frame. A distant dog in a large garden gives me fewer pixels than a slightly blurry close-up.
Send three or four rather than one. It costs you nothing and it usually means a better painting.
How This Portrait Gets Made
- Photograph review. You send what you have; I confirm it’s workable before any payment.
- Preliminary sketch. I draw the composition on the canvas and send you a photograph of it. Nothing gets painted until you approve it.
- Painting. Artist-grade oils on 100% linen canvas. I send progress photographs by email at the major stages, and you can comment at each one — small corrections at that point are part of the process, not a favor.
- Drying and varnish. The finished painting rests until the paint is stable enough to pack. I then use a modern conservation varnish that allows shipping the day after it’s applied.
- Packing and shipping. Fine-art export packing, express courier, insured and tracked.
The Portrait at Each Stage, in Photographs
Every portrait goes through the same stages, and you see each one: the sketch on the canvas, the base colors blocked in, and the paint surface itself once the layers are built up.
Those photographs are not decoration. In a category full of digital filters sold as “paintings,” process pictures are the difference between a claim and a fact.
How Payment Works
Nothing until you approve the sketch, then half, then the balance once the painting is finished and you’ve seen photographs of it — before it’s packed. Nobody pays to have their photographs looked at.
How Long It Takes, Honestly
If you’ve gone looking for memorial portrait painting turnaround times and found either silence or “2–3 days,” here are the real numbers.
- Photograph review and sketch approval: about 1 week
- Painting: about 3 weeks
- Drying before packing: 2 weeks — oil paint dries by oxidation, not evaporation. A faster courier can’t shorten it. Anyone shipping an oil painting a week after finishing it is shipping it wet.
- Express courier to the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, or Australia, including customs clearance: typically 1–2 weeks
Plan on about eight weeks from your first email to your front door. Sometimes it’s less, and I’d rather you were surprised in that direction than the other one.
| Destination | Commission by |
|---|---|
| United States, Canada, Australia | October 20 |
| United Kingdom, Ireland | October 27 |
| European Union | November 3 |
Those dates already carry a buffer for the seasonal backlog every courier runs from early October onward. If you write after them, I’ll tell you plainly that I can’t promise delivery before Christmas and offer you a January slot instead of taking the order and hoping.
Sizes and Pricing
These are the prices for an original oil painting on linen, shipped from my studio in Rzeszów, Poland. Shipping, insurance, and tracking are included; nothing gets added at the end.
| Size | Dimensions | USD | GBP | EUR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 30 × 20 cm (12 × 8 in) | $475 | £355 | €415 |
| Medium | 40 × 30 cm (16 × 12 in) | $725 | £535 | €625 |
| Large | 50 × 35 cm (20 × 14 in) | $895 | £665 | €775 |
| XL | 70 × 50 cm (28 × 20 in) | $1,195 | £885 | €1,035 |
| XXL | 90 × 60 cm (35 × 24 in) | $1,650 | £1,225 | €1,435 |
Dollar, pound, and euro prices are fixed list prices, not live conversions — you pay the figure in the column for your currency. Canadian and Australian customers are billed in US dollars.
A second animal in the same painting adds 35%; a third adds 65%.
Every portrait includes:
- the original oil painting on stretched 100% linen canvas with painted edges, ready to hang or frame
- a signed certificate of authenticity
- sketch approval and progress photographs
- fine-art export packing
- insured express shipping with tracking
Not included: a frame, and any import charges your country applies on delivery. The canvas edges are painted, so the painting is finished on all four sides and hangs perfectly well unframed — and framing is a decision better made in front of your own wall than shipped across an ocean in a box. On import charges, see the customs answer below; in the United States there is no duty on original paintings.
There is no memorial surcharge. The painting costs the same whether your dog or cat is still here or not.
One optional addition: your pet’s name and dates hand-lettered on the back of the canvas, with the painting packed in an archival keepsake box. $95 / £70 / €85. Ask for it when you write, or decide later — it can be added at any point before the painting is packed.
If You’re Buying This for Someone Else
A sympathy card is read once and put in a drawer. A painting of their dog or cat goes on a wall and stays there. If you’ve been looking for a pet loss sympathy gift and everything you’ve found so far looks like merchandise, this is the alternative.
Three practical things:
- It can ship straight to them. The delivery address and the billing address don’t have to match. That’s a standard option, not a special request.
- I can include a handwritten card. Your words, written by hand — or nothing at all, if you’d rather the painting spoke for itself.
- The photograph. You probably don’t have a good picture of someone else’s pet. Ask a family member quietly, or ask the recipient for photos “for an album.” And if the surprise collapses early, it matters less than you’d think: knowing a painting is coming and seeing the finished painting are two different moments.
If you’re unsure about size, or about which photo would work, write to me before you commit to anything. That conversation is free and it usually takes one email.
Questions People Ask
How long does an oil painting take to dry before it can be shipped?
At least two weeks. Oil paint dries by oxidation, not evaporation, so no courier, heater, or deadline can speed it up. Those two weeks are built into every estimate on this page, which is why a portrait takes about eight weeks door to door rather than four.
Will it arrive safely from Poland?
The painting travels by express courier, not standard mail, insured for its full value and tracked from my studio in Rzeszów to your door. It’s packed to fine-art export standard: acid-free glassine over the paint surface, foam-board plates front and back, protected corners, and a double box. Shipping, insurance, and tracking are already included in the listed price.
What if it arrives damaged?
Photograph the outer box before you unpack anything else, photograph the painting, and email me both the same day — carrier claim windows are short, and same-day pictures are what makes a claim work. I handle the claim itself. You then get either a repainted portrait at no cost or your money back, whichever you’d rather have.
What about customs or import tax in the US, UK, Canada, or Ireland?
Original hand-painted artwork is duty-free almost everywhere, but most countries still charge import tax on the value. In the United States there is no duty on original paintings and no federal import tax. In the United Kingdom there is no duty, and import VAT on original works of art is charged on a reduced value, giving an effective rate of 5% instead of 20%. In Canada there is no duty, and the CBSA collects 5% GST on the declared value, plus provincial tax in some provinces. In Ireland there is no duty, and imported original paintings are charged at the reduced VAT rate — 13.5% at the time of writing — rather than the standard 23%. Every portrait ships with full customs documentation declaring it as an original oil painting, which is what qualifies it for those rates. Where a charge applies, the courier collects it on delivery and may add its own clearance fee. That charge is the only cost that isn’t already in my price.
How and when do I pay?
Nothing until you approve the sketch. Then half the price, and the balance once the painting is finished and you’ve seen photographs of it, before it’s packed. Payment is by card or international bank transfer, in the currency shown in the table. A commissioned painting is made for one person and can’t be resold, so it isn’t returnable for a change of mind — which is exactly why you approve a sketch first and see the painting at every stage after that.
What if I don’t like how it turns out?
You approve a sketch before I mix any paint, and you see progress photographs while the painting is being made, so anything that looks wrong gets caught while it can still be changed. Corrections at those stages are part of the process, not a favor. Portraits that “don’t look like my dog” nearly always come from services that skip both steps and send you a finished file. I don’t ship a painting you haven’t already seen.
Can I see the painting while it’s being made?
Yes. You approve the preliminary sketch first, and then I send progress photographs by email at the major stages of painting. You can comment at each stage, and small corrections are part of the process, not a favor.
My only photo of them is old, blurry, or from far away — can you still work with it?
Send it anyway. I’ll tell you honestly whether it’s workable before you pay anything. If the face is clear in one photo and the pose you love is in another, I can work from both — that’s routine on memorial commissions.
Do you paint cats too, or mainly dogs?
Both, with the same attention and at the same price. Technically they ask for different things — a cat’s coat is a soft undercoat under longer guard hairs that catch the light, so I build it up in more layers, each one thinner than I’d use on most dog coats. Cats are not a sideline here.
Is this a print or an actual painting?
It’s an actual oil painting: oils applied by brush to linen canvas, with raised texture you can see and feel where the paint sits on the surface. A print is ink laid flat on paper or canvas by a machine, and every copy is identical; a painting is made once, by hand, from a blank canvas, and can’t be repeated exactly. What arrives at your door exists nowhere else.
Start With a Photograph
The first step costs nothing and commits you to nothing: send the photograph you have, and I’ll tell you honestly what can be made from it. Write to me with the photo, the country you’re in, and any date the portrait needs to arrive by.