Custom Paintings for Chinese Homes and Restaurants: Shan Shui, Koi, Peonies

PaletteMomento is a hand-painting studio in Dafen Art Village, Longgang District, Shenzhen. We paint 山水画 mountain and water landscapes, koi ponds, 牡丹 peonies, plum blossom, bamboo, cranes and red and gold abstracts by hand on canvas, made to order in any size. Nothing is printed. We paint to the brief you give us, down to which way the water flows and how many fish are in the pond. We photograph every finished canvas and nothing leaves the studio until you approve it. There is no minimum order, so one painting for a living room and forty for a restaurant are both normal orders here.

What Chinese-speaking homes and restaurants hang, and why on canvas

The requests we get from Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, the United States and Canada repeat in a helpful way. A wide 山水画 above the sofa, on the wall many buyers call the 沙发背景墙. Koi near the entrance or in a corner of the living room. Peonies in a bedroom or a dining room. Cranes and pine as a gift for parents. Something red and gold by the front door before the new year. There is a separate page on art for Southeast Asian homes if that is the region you are furnishing.

Most of these subjects grew up as ink on rice paper, mounted as a hanging scroll. We paint them as 手绘油画, hand-painted work on stretched canvas. That changes three practical things. Canvas hangs like any other painting, stretched on solid wood bars or framed, with no glass in front of it. It scales, so the same composition can be painted small for a hallway or very large for a lobby. And an ink-wash look on canvas is a painted effect rather than ink soaking into paper, so it reads softer up close and stronger from across a room. We will tell you plainly which of your references translate well to canvas and which do not.

Painting to your 风水画 brief

We are painters, not consultants. We do not tell anyone what is auspicious. You, or your feng shui master, give us the brief and we paint exactly that. Writing it down in plain sentences is the whole trick.

These are the instructions buyers send us most often. We are describing common practice, not giving advice.

• Water flowing toward the room, not away from it.
• Mountains massed behind, open water and a clear path in front.
• 九鱼图, nine koi, with one black fish among eight red or gold ones, all swimming inward.
• No lone tree, no bare winter branches, and a rising sun rather than a setting one.
• No fierce animal facing into the room. Tigers and eagles only if you ask for them, and turned outward if you prefer.
• No set of four panels. We offer two, three, six or eight instead, because the number four sounds like an unlucky word in Chinese.

Before we start we confirm your brief back to you in writing, point by point. When the canvas is finished we photograph it and send you the photos, so you can check the direction of the water, the count of the fish and the color before anything is packed. If a piece has a defect that is our fault, we repaint it at our cost. If you want to see who holds the brush and in what order the layers go down, read how we paint.

山水画 on canvas: ink-wash look or full color

There are three ways buyers usually go, and they cost the same to paint.

One honest limit. Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing paintings are old enough to be in the public domain, and we paint compositions inspired by them rather than copying a museum photograph stroke for stroke. We do not copy living artists, artists who died recently, or other studios’ designs. Our paintings are unsigned. If you send us a modern artist’s work as a reference, we will use it for mood, palette and layout and paint an original composition for you.

Koi, 牡丹 peonies and the other subjects we paint most

Every subject below is painted by hand to order. Tell us the subject, the count, the palette and the room, and we do the rest.

Red and gold done quietly, and Chinese characters

Red and gold does not have to shout. In a modern flat it usually works best as an abstract: broad warm fields, a gold sweep, one strong red gesture, everything else calm. The other route is calligraphy-inspired brushwork, meaning the rhythm and the black-on-cream energy of brush strokes without any readable text.

Sizes for flats, condos, houses and lobbies

We paint 60 standard sizes from 24 by 20 inches up to 80 by 60 inches, plus sets of two and three. Any other size is painted to your measurements at the same rate, which matters for the long, low horizontal that fits above a three-seat sofa. Anything larger than 80 by 60 inches on a single canvas is quoted case by case. For a double-height lobby wall we usually suggest a set of two or three panels, since panels are easier to ship and easier to carry up a stairwell than one huge stretcher.

Good fit

• You have a specific brief, including subject, direction, count and color, and you want it followed.
• Your wall is an odd width and standard sizes do not work.
• You want a real painted surface with visible brush and knife marks, not a print.
• You are ordering several pieces for one property and want them to match.

Not a fit

• You need it on the wall this week. Hand painting plus transit takes weeks, not days.
• You want a copy of a named modern artist’s painting.
• You want ink on rice paper mounted as a traditional scroll. We paint on canvas.
• You want us to decide what is auspicious for you. We paint the brief, we do not advise on it.

See what we already paint in landscape and countryside and floral and botanical, or read how we handle extra large canvases and multi-panel sets.

Chinese restaurants, tea houses and hotels abroad (餐厅挂画)

A restaurant order usually looks like this: one large 山水画 or koi piece at the entrance, a matched run of smaller pieces down the dining room, and something calmer for the private rooms. You can order all of it in one go. Mixed designs count together toward the same price band, so twenty different paintings are priced the same way as twenty of one design.

Two things save real money on a project this size. Rolled canvas in a tube is the cheapest way to ship more than about 20 pieces, and a local framer can stretch or frame them on arrival. Heavy texture is the exception, since thick paint should not be rolled, so those pieces ship stretched or framed. We will tell you which of your chosen designs are too thick to roll before you decide. There is more for venue projects on our restaurants, bars and cafes page.

Gifts, Lunar New Year and ordering in time

Cranes and pine for a parent’s birthday, peonies for a wedding, a koi pond for a housewarming, plum blossom or a red and gold piece for the new year. These are gifts with a date attached, so count backward from the date rather than forward from today.

1. Step 1 Add up the painting time from the table above for the number of pieces you want.
2. Step 2 Add transit. Express is 5 to 10 business days. Sea freight is 25 to 40 days and needs far more lead time.
3. Step 3 Add a few days for your approval photos, and a few more if the piece will be framed locally after it lands.
4. Step 4 Send us your date when you enquire and we will tell you in writing whether it is realistic before you pay anything.

On the paperwork side: paintings executed entirely by hand fall under HTS 9701, which carries a free base rate of duty into the United States, though other measures on China-origin goods can still apply, so confirm with a customs broker. Import tax in your own country is your side of the line, and we will supply whatever documents your broker asks for. Payment is usually a 50 percent deposit with the balance before the goods are released, by wire transfer, PayPal or card. Before you send your brief, take a look at how we quote so you know what to include.

Did not find what you like? Send us what you like and we paint it

Our catalog is a starting point, not the limit. Most Chinese-subject work we do begins with something the buyer sends us.

• A photo of a painting or scroll you saw, even a phone snap taken in a restaurant.
• A Pinterest board, a screenshot, a magazine page, or an AI-generated image.
• Your own photo: a mountain view from home, your garden pond, a family courtyard.
• Several photos combined into one composition, which is common for koi.
• A catalog design of ours resized, recolored, or turned into a set of two or three.
• A paint chip or a fabric swatch to match. We send you a photo of the mixed color in daylight for approval before we paint.

For a first order or a large project we can paint a sample first, and the sample cost is credited back on any order of 10 pieces or more. If you are furnishing a Chinese restaurant next to a Japanese one, our art for Japanese homes page covers that side. Full terms, bands and packing options are on our trade page.