Frequently Asked Questions

You can contact us by phone, letter, or email.

Mailing address:

1STAG Int LTD

17 Dimitrίoy Street, #201

Milano House, Larnaca

Cyprus

Phone: +1-888-417-8278

Email: team@paintmylife.com

Our artists have, on average, 15 years of experience and they all have advanced degrees in fine arts. As we have a large team of artists, we employ specialists in certain disciplines and styles.

For normal orders, shipping is free to anywhere in the world. If you are a wholesale customer, we have some different options if you wish to buy in bulk.

Yes, even there. The shipping charges are included in our painting's price to any location in the world that FedEx, UPS or DHL will deliver to.

We only use reputable carriers like FedEx, DHL or UPS. We ship unframed paintings in a protective, hard tube.

In the very rare case that your painting arrives damaged, please take photographs of the packaging. If the damage is absolutely certain to have damaged the painting, please refuse the delivery so we can receive the package back from the shipping company and claim the insurance funds. We will then paint a new painting for you and will ship it to you within 10 days. This extremely rare circumstance does not constitute a reason for a refund as the damage is the responsibility of the shipping company and as we will paint for you a new painting for absolutely free.

As with most purchases, paying any local customs or taxes is the customer's responsibility. However, it has been our experience that 95% of the paintings arrive untaxed.

We only sell 100% handmade oil paintings and portraits, hand painted by experienced artists. These are oil on canvas genuine masterpieces and each stroke, texture, and nuance is created by hand - in the same way the original paintings were created. We use no printing, pressing, or technological tricks to create our paintings.

As we produce paintings, not prints, it is actually quite complicated. You can read more about that below:

The Painting Process

One of our artists describes the process of creating a Paint My Life masterpiece:

Hi, my name is Tom. For more than 30 years I’ve painted in a variety of styles. Today, I lend my skills to Paint My Life and right now I’m going to show you how we go from a blank canvas to a finished masterpiece.

Step 1: Sketching on a canvas

All great paintings start with a sketch. That’s why when we begin a painting, we use charcoal or pencils to sketch the rough shapes and figures onto the canvas. This gives us an opportunity to focus on composition in the painting.

Step 2: Painting the undercoat color

Starting with the larger brushes, we begin to apply paint to the canvas. Following the charcoal outline, we paint the basic shapes and colors, keeping the edges soft. We’ll paint the background, fill in the main subjects and not worry about small details. If you saw the painting at this stage, you may not recognize it.

Step 3: Building the forms

This is where we begin building forms of objects and play with color relationships. We paint in light and dark values of colors, building up or reducing the hue intensity to create depth. After each stage the paint needs to dry before we can move forward.

Step 4: Adding textures

Here, we’ll focus on the techniques or effects that the original artist used. By using different brush sizes and types, by utilizing different painting techniques, or by just using more or less paint on the brush, we can add the textures, character and unique features of the original painting. By knowing how to recreate an artist’s signature style our own skills and creativity get a chance to shine.

Step 5: Adding details, cast, shadows & highlights

By deftly adding color or shading to the painting, we can make sure that each object in the painting has the prominence that the original artist intended. We focus on color density, shadows, background and other elements of the painting.

Step 6: Completion and finishing touches

After we’ve finished the painting, we aren’t done. Now, we’ll bring a few of our master painters, with more than 15 years of experience, into the studio to offer opinions. We can also email a photo of the painting to the customer and make any changes they request. Then, our most senior artist examines the painting. Only upon his final approval is the painting moved to our shipping department.

No - by default our paintings are not signed by the artist. However, if you like, you can request us to sign it.

Every painting in our gallery is either in the public domain or being sold under license from the estate of the artist. There's no need to worry about copyright infringement. If you find on our database a work of art that you suspect as being unlicensed, please notify us immediately.

We hope to add more original pieces to our collection, but we can create original paintings from your photographs.

Email us at team@paintmylife.com and we will gladly help you with a quote to paint any standard portrait or painting.

Between four and five weeks. Since painting with oil on canvas is a complicated, time-consuming process, our artists will spend between 20-25 business days creating your masterpiece. If your painting is much larger, or if it is extremely complex, the artist spends a bit more time with it. After you've approved the painting, we will ship it to you immediately. Shipping can take three to five days. When you order your painting, we'll send you a detailed timeline that shows when you'll see a sample and when you'll receive your painting.

Our largest paintings are 120 inches by 120 inches (3 meters by 3 meters). However, if you have a special request, our artists can work on even much larger canvases - there is no limit.

For any custom quotes, please contact us at team@paintmylife.com and we are happy to help!

Yes. You can request paintings in any size you want. Some customers like to follow the painting's original aspect ratio, keeping the original relation between the painting's length and width. If the size you need does not match the painting's original aspect ratio our experienced artists will extend or reduce some of the painting's background to achieve the best possible result. Our artists are very flexible and there is no limit. Just let us know what you want.

Of course. Every day, we create original pieces from photographs that our customers provide. We produce portraits, recreate wedding photos, and even paint beloved family pets. We can also compile multiple images together to create your new hand painted portrait today.

Yes, we have experience adding detail to a painting from multiple photographs. Perhaps it's the detail for a family crest, the writing on a sweatshirt, or just a hairstyle. Our artists can use the details that you provide to make your painting capture even more details than the original photograph did.

Yes. That's a frequent request from our customers. We can paint color portraits from old black and white photos or damaged photos and can even provide some color correction.

Of course. All we need is a quality photograph of it and our artists can reproduce it.

Definitely. It's called a composite painting. Since our artists start from scratch there is no limit to what they can add to or subtract from the original photos. An example could be a family portrait with an additional person, a different background or a photograph painted in the style of a particular artist. As far as composites go, the only limit is your imagination.

You can pay for your painting through our secured payment page via PayPal with your credit card, debit card, or Paypal account. We accept all major credit cards such as Visa Mastercard, American Express, Discover.

For large orders over $5,000, we'll accept a bank wire. Please contact us at team@paintmylife.com and we are happy to help!

As with any reputable art gallery or Internet eCommerce vendor, we make all credit card transactions via a secured, bank-authorized credit card processing company and through a 256 bit SSL encrypted and secured Web page. No person will see your credit card information as it is all done electronically. We also do not keep your credit card number on file. As an added level of security, all purchases are guaranteed by both your credit card and our processing company.

You're purchasing the portrait and everything that goes into it along with our costs to ship it to you. All costs such as insurance and fees are included and you won't be asked to pay anything else.

Of course. We will email you a digital photograph of the painting before we ship. You can look at the image and ask for revisions or approve the image for shipping.

You pay when you place your order with us. Before we begin working on your painting, we need to know that you have the means to pay for it. All online transactions work this way and keep in mind that all paintings ordered from Paint My Life are backed by our 100% satisfaction and money-back guarantee.

Yes, in fact, we offer many. The first guarantee happens when, if requested by you during checkout, we email you a photo of your painting. Our guarantee is that we'll revise this painting until it meets your expectations. Our second guarantee is when you receive the painting; you are free to return it for more revisions or else for a full refund minus our actual shipping cost -- which is about $25-45 per painting. Our return policy is valid for 365 days and the return period is from the merchandise arrival date and is not valid for custom orders. The money-back guarantee is not transferable to 3rd parties, you cannot order a painting for someone else only to "discover" that he is not interested.

Even after approving the initial emailed photos of the painting, if you're unhappy with the painting, you can return it to us for revisions. In the unlikely case that we cannot improve it to your satisfaction, we will refund you minus our actual shipping cost. We do ask however that the revisions you request not conflict with the original direction that you gave our artists. You may ask for revisions until the painting meets your expectations.

It is compulsory to contact us before returning a painting and await exact return instructions. Our actual shipping cost will be deducted from the refund. Returned merchandise must be wrapped & packed in the original tube and send to the address of origin. Merchandise must be returned as instructed. Failure to follow these instructions may result in a penalty of up to $75.00 per painting.

Our Terms & Conditions

Any participation in this service and product will constitute acceptance of this agreement.

In these terms, “you” and “your” refer to the customer and “we”, “us” and “our” refer to paintmylife.com or affiliates. paintmylife.com is operated by 1STAG INT LTD, at D.N. Dimitriou, 17, Milano House, Office 201, 6022, Lanarca, Cyprus under organization number 561401.

Price & Delivery

The price you will pay for the goods is the price in the painting product page, the shopping cart page and email confirmation. Once the goods have been delivered to you, you will hold them at your own risk and will be liable for their loss or destruction. We will not be liable for the loss or destruction of the goods once they have been delivered to you.

Liability and Disclaimer

Except as specifically stated on this Web site, to the fullest extent permitted at law, neither 1st-art-gallery.com nor any of its affiliates, directors, employees or other representatives will be liable for damages arising out of or in connection with the use of this Web site or the information, content, materials or products included on this site. This is a comprehensive limitation of liability that applies to all damages of any kind, including (without limitation) compensatory, direct, indirect or consequential damages, loss of data, income or profit, loss of or damage to property and claims of third parties. For the avoidance of doubt, we do not limit its liability for death or personal injury to the extent only that it arises as a result of our negligence, our affiliates, directors, employees or other representatives.

Entire Agreement

This Agreement supersedes all prior agreements, arrangements, warranties and understandings between the parties and constitutes the entire Agreement between them relating to its subject matter. Nothing said or any representation made by any employee, including but not limited to our telesales staff, should be understood as a variation of these terms and conditions of the sale or as an authorized representation about the goods provided. Our disclaimer of liability shall include but not be limited to misleading and untrue representations but shall not include fraudulent misrepresentations. Any legal dispute occurrences are to be resolved in Cyprus.

Image Gallery

Images may not be used for commercial purposes in a "stand-alone" manner and may not be reprinted and sold as posters, greeting cards, t-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, shoes or other similar commercial products, or as framed prints.

Privacy Policy & Security

Your privacy and security are important to us.

Personally Identifiable InformationInformation Collection, Use, and Sharing

We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.

We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request, e.g. to ship an order.

Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy.

We only gather information that visitors to paintmylife.com are willing to give. Some of it is required to fulfill orders (like names, shipping addresses, and phone numbers) or to maintain accounts (such as customer accounts and affiliate accounts) and we ask for some information so that we can provide better service (contact information like email addresses and phone numbers, for example). We never store sensitive information like credit card data.

Sharing Information with Third Parties

We do not share our customers’ personal information with anyone. Period.

Your Access To and Control Over Information

You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us:

– See what data we have about you, if any.

– Change/correct the data we have about you.

– Have us delete any data we have about you (if you'd like your information deleted, send us an email request).

– Express any concern you have about our use of your data (By the contact us).

Non-Identifying Information

We collect all kinds of statistics about visits to our site, where the visitors came from, what they did and viewed during their visit, what kinds of computers and browsers they use, and where they went when they left. However, we do not (and cannot) collect any personally identifying information (names, email addresses and such) this way.

Privacy

Paint My Life maintains a strict privacy protocol for all customer information. Occasionally, we email our customers to let them know about new products, services, offers, promotions, and anything else we think might be of interest (unless you don’t want us to, in which case just let us know and we won’t). We keep all the email we receive and send so that we can find all the information we need about particular order histories. We send emails to customers only if it concerns a specific order or question, or if the customer has opted to receive promotional emails.

Security

We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline.

Wherever you submit sensitive information (such as credit card data), that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a closed lock icon at the bottom of your web browser, or looking for "https" at the beginning of the address of the web page. We never store any sensitive information.

While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.