Personal Cartography
Your Place. Your Story. Made Into Art.
Some places remain with us.
The city where you met. The coastline your family returns to every summer. A childhood home. A favorite trail. The streets of a place that changed you. A collection of destinations that, together, tell the story of a life.
Personal Cartography commissions transform those places into original works of art.
Each painting begins with real geography. Maps, roads, waterways, coastlines, neighborhoods, architecture, landmarks, and natural features create the foundation. From there, I layer color, texture, pattern, history, memory, and personal details until the map becomes something uniquely yours.
More Than A Place.
What makes a painting
A Personal Cartography commission begins with a location, though the finished painting holds much more than geography.
We might begin with the street where you grew up and the river you crossed each morning. A honeymoon destination and the small restaurant you still remember. The cities your family has called home. The coastline where generations have gathered.
During the commission process, I learn about the place as you experienced it.
Together, we consider the memories, history, architecture, natural features, colors, routes, landmarks, and small details that give that geography meaning.
Meaningful Places
Hometowns, travels, family homes, honeymoon destinations, favorite landscapes, coastlines, cities, islands, and the places you return to again and again.
Layers of Story
Maps and geography are layered with landmarks, waterways, architecture, cultural references, history, personal memories, and details drawn from your experience.
Abstract Expression
The geography becomes the framework rather than the final destination. Color, texture, mark-making, and movement allow the painting to hold the feeling of the place as much as its physical form.
Made for You
Every commission is created individually. Scale, composition, palette, geography, and personal references are considered in relation to your story and the space where the artwork will live.
Portfolio
Reserve a Commission
Commission an original painting of a place that has become part of your life.
Personal Cartography transforms meaningful geography into abstract, map-inspired artwork. A childhood neighborhood. The city where you met. A coastline returned to each summer. A honeymoon destination. A family property. A route traveled repeatedly. Or several places connected across years.
Each commission begins with the geography itself, then moves beyond the map. I research the location and consider its roads, waterways, boundaries, architecture, landscape, history, and other details that give the place its character. Through color, texture, line, and abstraction, that geography becomes something personal.
The finished painting is not intended to reproduce a conventional map. It is an interpretation of where your life unfolded and what remains of that place in memory.
Materials
Choose from:
Archival Oil Paper: An intimate, heavyweight oil-painting surface intended for professional framing.
Archival ACM Panel: A smooth, rigid and highly stable surface with a contemporary presentation.
Oil-Primed Linen: A traditional fine-art surface with subtle texture, particularly suited to expressive brushwork.
Birchwood Panel: A substantial rigid surface with a warm, tactile character.
Oil or acrylic paint is selected according to the surface and desired character of the painting. Available materials vary by size.
Sizes
Small: 9" × 12" to 11" × 14"
An intimate study of one meaningful place. Ideal for a neighborhood, property, coastline, landmark, or destinatio.
Medium: 12" × 18" to 18" × 24"
Offers more room for geographic detail, interconnected landmarks, waterways, roads, and the character of the surrounding landscape.
Large: 24" × 30" to 30" × 40"
Designed for more expansive compositions, complex geography, multiple connected locations, or a place explored through greater depth and detail.
Gallery: 36" × 36"+
Large-scale statement works created for significant personal narratives, expansive geography, and residential, hospitality, or commercial spaces.
Pricing & Consultation
The listed price reflects a 50% deposit toward your commission. Final pricing is based on the selected size, material, and composition and will be confirmed during your consultation before the commission agreement is signed.
Multiple subjects, complex settings, extensive detail, specialty materials, or significant reconstruction from several photographs may require an additional fee.
Any adjustment is discussed and approved before your commission agreement is signed and before painting begins. You may approve the revised price, adjust the concept to remain within your original budget, or request a refund before signing the agreement.
How It Works
1. Reserve — Select your size, material, and payment option.
2. Share — Send several high-resolution photographs and tell me about the people and moment you would like preserved.
3. Consult — Within 24–48 hours, I will reach out to begin the collaboration process. We will discuss setting, color, atmosphere, materials, and meaningful details.
4. Approve — I’ll confirm the final scope, price, and timeline. Your commission begins after the agreement is signed.
5. Create — Your cartography is painted individually by hand, with progress images shared at key stages.
6. Deliver — Once complete and sufficiently cured, your painting is carefully prepared for delivery.
Timeline
Allow approximately 10–12 weeks from signing the commission agreement, including approximately 10–12 weeks for painting and 2–8 business days for shipping.
Oil paintings may require additional drying time. Larger or more complex commissions may require longer. For weddings, anniversaries, holidays, or other time-sensitive gifts, please reserve early.
Photography
Clients are responsible for providing photographs they own or have permission to use. Professional wedding, engagement, or newborn photography may require permission from the photographer.
Shipping
Small and medium works are generally shipped flat and protected. Large works may require custom crating, freight, white-glove delivery, or installation. Additional delivery costs are quoted when applicable.
Commission Policy
Because each landscape is made specifically for you, commissions cannot be returned or exchanged once the agreement has been signed and painting has begun.
Before signing, you may adjust the scope, approve any price adjustment, or request a refund.
Reserve Your Personal Cartography
Some places become more than coordinates on a map. They hold the roads we traveled, the landscapes we remember, and the moments that unfolded there. A Personal Cartography commission transforms that geography into an original work of art, preserving a place that has become part of your story.
Frame not included. Shipping, specialty crating, and installation may be quoted separately when applicable.
A hand-painted map of a place that became part of your story.
CLR Creations accepts a limited number of Personal Cartography commissions each year, transforming meaningful geography into original works of art. A hometown, coastline, wedding location, family property, favorite destination, or a place connected to an important chapter of your life can become the starting point.
Using maps, photographs, research, and the memories you share, I interpret roads, waterways, coastlines, landmarks, and other geographic details through color, texture, line, and abstraction. The finished work exists somewhere between map, landscape, and memory, preserving not simply what a place looks like, but what it came to mean.
Each commission is 100% hand-painted in oil or acrylic on your choice of archival oil paper, ACM panel, oil-primed linen, or birchwood panel, with sizes ranging from intimate 9" × 12" works to gallery-scale paintings 36" × 36" and larger. Learn more about materials and sizes.
Your reservation is a 50% deposit toward the base commission price and secures your place on the studio calendar. After reserving, we’ll discuss your location, story, references, size, material, palette, and artistic direction. Final scope and pricing are confirmed before the commission agreement is signed and painting begins.
Most commissions are completed within approximately 10–12 weeks from signing, with additional time possible for larger or more complex projects.
Personal Cartography commissions can also be created as meaningful gifts for weddings, anniversaries, retirements, housewarmings, milestone birthdays, and other significant moments.
If the painting is intended as a gift, I can work with you privately to gather the geography, references, and personal details needed to create the piece.
For commissions tied to a specific date, early booking is recommended to allow time for painting, curing, and delivery.