Custom Hand-Painted Art for African Homes, Hotels and the Diaspora

We hand paint art for African homes, hotels and diaspora households, one canvas at a time, in our studio in Dafen Art Village, Shenzhen. Nothing here is printed. Send us a photo of your grandmother and we paint her portrait large enough to hold a living room wall. Send a photo of the cloth on your sofa and we paint an abstract in those same colors. There is no minimum order. Nothing ships until you approve a photo of the finished canvas.

What homes and hotels are hanging now

Design writers covering Nigeria in 2026 keep pointing at the same shift. Dark woods are back, textures are layered, and people want a room that says something about their own family. Three requests come up again and again.

Portraits painted from your own photos

This is the request we get most from African and diaspora buyers, and the one a print cannot answer. Old photos are fine: small, scratched, faded, a scan from an album, a screenshot from a video call. We can combine several photos into one composition, so a couple who never sat for a picture together end up in one painting. If the person in the photo has died, our page on memorial portraits walks through what to send when the only picture left is faded or blurry.

Skin tone is the part buyers worry about most, and they are right to. Deep skin is not one flat brown. It carries warm and cool light and it changes across a face, so our painters mix it in layers instead of filling a shape with one color. During a commission we send progress photos while the painting is still on the easel, so you can ask for more warmth before the paint dries. See custom portrait paintings for how a commission runs.

Your own cloth, turned into a painting

Bring us the fabric and we build an original abstract from it. Photograph it in daylight, or post us a swatch. We take the colors and the rhythm of the pattern and paint something new at wall scale, in paint thick enough to read from across the room.

We do not copy the print itself. Wax print houses own their designs and enforce them, and in Ghana kente and adinkra designs are protected as national folklore. So we work Ankara-inspired and kente-inspired: the palette, the beat of the repeat, the way one color cuts across another. What lands on your wall is our composition. If you want the pattern to lead instead of the color, ask about custom geometric and color block paintings.

Color matching is a real step, not a promise. We mix the color, photograph it under daylight and send you that photo for approval before we start painting. If it reads too pink next to your sofa, we mix again. Match to a paint code, a fabric sample or a photo. More on our color matched paintings page.

Baobab, acacia and animals

These commissions come two ways. Either you send a reference, a photo you took yourself or an image you have the right to use, and we paint from it. Or you pick a catalog design and we change it: a sunset shifted toward terracotta and gold, a horizontal reworked as three panels for a long lobby wall. Elephants, giraffes and lions are painted from your reference rather than pulled from a stock line.

Our catalog animal designs sit in the animal and wildlife collection. Any of them can be repainted in your colors and your size.

Bold color in a modern room

Magenta, cobalt, gold, burnt orange and terracotta sit well against dark wood and against the warm plaster and cream walls common in Lagos and Accra interiors. If your furniture is quiet, one large loud canvas carries the room. We paint at whatever scale the wall needs, including single canvases larger than 80 by 60 inches, which we quote case by case.

Hotels, lodges, restaurants and designers

There is no minimum order. Trade pricing applies from one piece, the rate improves at 6 pieces and again at 21, and mixed designs count together. Portraits for the suites, a large abstract for the lobby and small pieces for the corridor all count toward one combined rate.

Production runs 7 to 10 business days for 1 to 5 pieces, 10 to 15 for 6 to 20, 15 to 20 for 21 to 50 and 20 to 30 for 51 to 100. Over 100 is scheduled with you. Large canvases, heavy texture and multi-panel sets sit at the top of their band, because thick paint has to dry between layers. For a first order or a big project we paint a sample first, credited back on any order of 10 pieces or more. Full terms are on our trade page.

Getting it to Lagos, Nairobi, Accra, Johannesburg or the diaspora

Delivery is EXW our Shenzhen studio. Freight is quoted separately at cost and we do not add anything to it. Express by FedEx or DHL takes 5 to 10 business days. Air freight and sea freight are both available, and sea takes 25 to 40 days. CIF and DDP are available on request, so ask us about your address before you plan around it. If your address is in the United States, the same freight choices are laid out for that destination on our page about shipping to the United States.

Rolled canvas in a tube is the cheapest way to move volume, especially over about 20 pieces, and a local framer can stretch it on arrival. Stretched and framed work needs more space, so we crate it and confirm the crate count before booking transport.

What we will not paint

• We do not copy living artists, another company’s design, or a branded wax print.
• We do not reproduce named kente patterns or adinkra symbols as products, and we do not run a Maasai line. A Maasai or Fulani figure has to come from your own photo, or one you have the rights to.
• We do not imitate Tingatinga, a living style tied to the artists who paint it.
• Musicians, athletes and politicians we paint only for the person who holds the rights to the photo, and not for resale.
• Old master reproductions are limited to work in the public domain, and ours are unsigned.
• We do not use words like tribal or exotic, and we assume nothing about religion. You tell us what a piece should carry.

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

The catalog is a starting point, not a limit. Most of what leaves this studio for African and diaspora homes was never in it. Browse the figurative and human collection for a feel of how we handle people in paint, then send us the thing you actually want.

1. Send it A photo, a fabric swatch, a Pinterest board, an AI image, a sketch on paper.
2. Tell us the wall Rough size, or the width of the sofa below it, plus the wall color.
3. Pick the finish Rolled, stretched on wood bars, or framed in black, white, wood, silver or gold. All five frame colors cost the same.
4. Approve the color If we are matching a fabric or paint code, we send a daylight photo of the mixed color first.
5. Approve the painting We photograph the finished canvas. Only when you say yes do we pack it and book the freight.