Friday 17 June 2011

Help me raise £1,000 for Oxfam by painting

For the last three years I’ve been painting pictures of video games to help raise funds for both Child’s Play and Oxfam, you can see some of my paintings here and here. I’ve just recently completed my list of requests, and have now set myself a target of raising £1,000 for Oxfam, by doing 20 paintings in exchange for a minimum £50 donation each, plus costs of materials and postage.

For anyone who would like me to paint something for them: I am accepting requests from now until Saturday 2nd July at 12:00 noon BST. Once that deadline has passed, I’ll then make a selection of paintings I’d like to paint from all the emails I have received. Any that don’t make the cut, but I like anyway, will go onto a reserve list in case someone drops out.

It’s going to be a bit different than last time, in that there are only 20 places available on my Oxfam painting list. This is so I don't get inundated with painting requests, and end up with a waiting list that took over 3 years to complete. I'm going to choose the paintings I do based on how much I like them.

Here’s how to submit your request:

Email me at canvasandpaints@gmail.com with the following information:



  • Label the subject heading “Oxfam painting”
  • Your name and address.
  •  How you found out about my paintings.
  • A link to at least one hi-res image of what you want me to paint, and if possible, a you tube link if it’s from a game (the picture to be in line with the "I won't paint anything violent, exploitative or offensive and I get to decide that, not you." rule. If in doubt, pick another image.)
  •  A commitment from you to donate a minimum of £50 to Oxfam. I will send you a link to the Oxfam Virgin Money Giving website once I have decided to paint you a picture. As soon as I tell you I am ready to start your painting, you will donate the money.
  •  A commitment to make a payment into my Paypal account for the costs of canvas, postage and packing, before I start the painting for you.
  • You will have a choice of postage costs, which as well as varying dependent on where you live, will depend on which postal service you opt for. We can talk about your options once I’ve chosen your painting. Within the UK, costs will be around £15 - £20, the rest of the world will be between £25 - £35. I will wrap each canvas in polystyrene, bubble wrap and brown paper.


What you will get from me:



  • Once you have a place on the list, I will let you know when to expect your painting.
  •   I will paint your picture on either stretched canvas, or canvas board, depending on the size of the image I paint. Most paintings I do are on 40 cm x 50 cm stretched canvas, but that depends on the ratio of height to width of your source image - sometimes I adjust the painting, sometimes I use longer or narrower canvas.
  •  If you want a painting larger than 40cm x 50cm, postage and canvas costs will be significantly more, if you want a smaller painting, costs will be less, but I will always let you know costs before I start.
  •  I will post regular updates of your painting's progress on canvas and paints, and on Twitter, @CanvasandPaints so you can see how it’s getting on.
  • As soon as I have finished your painting, and it has thoroughly dried out, I will post it to you.



The reason I’m asking for payment up front is a) I can’t afford to have someone not pay me for the postage costs (thankfully, most people have) and b) I want to be sure people really do donate to Oxfam (thankfully, again, most people have).

Here is the Oxfam donation page, in case you just feel like making a donation to Oxfam.

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