What Goes Into a Commissioned Family Oil Painting — A Behind-the-Scenes Look

When families ask me about commissioned oil painting portraits, the question I hear most often is some version of: how does it actually work? What happens between the moment someone says yes and the moment a painting takes its place on their wall?

This project gave me the perfect excuse to show you.

It Started in Allaire State Park Last Fall

Last autumn, I photographed a beautiful family at Allaire State Park — mom, dad, their two young adult daughters, and their two dogs surrounded by the kind of golden fall light that makes you want to stop and stay a while. It was a warm session, full of laughter and easy togetherness, and I knew before I even left the park that the painting was going to be something special.

That session became the photographic reference for a commissioned oil painting I have been working on ever since. And I am happy to say: it is nearly complete.

From Portrait Session to Painted Canvas — The Process

This is the part most people never see, and honestly it is the part I love most.

A commissioned oil painting does not begin at the easel. It begins months earlier, during the portrait session itself, where I am thinking not just photographically but painterly — watching how the light falls, how the family moves together, which moments carry the emotional weight that will translate onto canvas.

Once the reference portrait is selected and the commission is confirmed, I begin the actual painting. For this family, that meant building up layers of oil paint over many weeks — blocking in the composition, developing the fall landscape around them, painting each face with care, working the dogs into the foreground until the whole scene felt alive and unified.

I shared a few glimpses along the way: close sections of the canvas as it developed, and a shot of me actually at the easel. Because I never want this process to feel invisible. The hours, the layering, the looking and adjusting — that is what separates a commissioned oil painting from anything you could order online.

What Happens Next — The Studio Reveal

Now that the painting is nearly complete, my clients will be coming to the studio for their first live viewing.

This is one of my favorite moments in the whole process. There is something that happens when a family sees their portrait in person for the first time — painted, at scale, on canvas — that no photograph can prepare them for. It fills a room with presence.

At the studio viewing, they will see the painting in full for the first time. If there are any final refinements — a detail they would like adjusted, a color they want shifted — we make those notes together. From there, the painting goes through its final stages: archival varnish applied by hand, then framing from our in-house collection, and finally, delivery.

From our lens to our canvas to your wall. This is the full journey.

Why Commission an Oil Painting Portrait?

I get asked this often, especially by families who are weighing whether a painted portrait is worth the investment. Here is what I tell them.

A photograph captures a moment. An oil painting crafts one. Every brushstroke is a decision — about light, about feeling, about what matters most in this family's story. The result is something singular. There is no other painting like it in the world.

Our commissioned oil paintings are executed on archival canvas with professional-grade oil paints and finished with museum-grade varnish that protects the surface for generations. They are sized for walls — meant to be seen, to fill a room, to become the thing guests stop and ask about.

They are not decorations. They are heirlooms.

Commissioned Oil Painting Portraits in NJ — Start Your Own

If this project has made you think about your own family — your parents, your children, your dogs, a moment you want to hold onto — I would love to hear from you.

Every commissioned oil painting begins with a portrait session, which I can photograph here in New Jersey or in a location that holds meaning for your family. From there, I handle everything: the painting, the varnishing, the framing, the installation.

Some moments deserve more than a folder on a hard drive.

Visit our contact page to begin the conversation about your commissioned oil painting.

Theresa Artigas is a fine art portrait photographer and oil painter based in Brielle, NJ. Her studio at 604 Union Ave. specializes in commissioned oil painting portraits, heirloom wall portraits, and fine art family photography throughout the Jersey Shore and surrounding areas. Learn more at theresaartigas.com/oil-paintings.