Portraits from Life

Andy Maier

Oil portraits in the late-nineteenth-century grand manner — painted from life. The sitting, the painting, and a film of its making.

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Selected Portraits

Select Work

Gwen

Oil on canvas, 23"× 32", 2026

Justin, Seated

Oil on canvas, 24" × 36", 2025

From life.

Captain W. V. H.

Oil on panel, 18 "x 22", 2025

From life.

Biography

The Painter

Andy Maier, a portrait painter based in Seattle.

Andy paints directly from life, working in the tradition of late nineteenth-century portraiture. His paintings are built wet into wet, with an emphasis on light, gesture, and the presence of the person sitting in front of him.

After two decades working in film and visual storytelling, he began painting seriously in 2023. What started as a personal pursuit quickly became something larger.

Today, he is building a portrait practice around a simple idea: sit together, paint from life, and let the painting become a record of the time spent in the room.

Andy Maier paints portraits from life in the tradition of the late nineteenth century. Drawing on two decades as a director and cinematographer, he works alla prima—wet into wet, without tracing or projection—to capture the sitter as they appeared in the room and in the light.

Each portrait is conservation-mounted, housed in a custom-built frame, and accompanied by a handwritten provenance recording the sitter, dates, and materials.

Commissioning a Portrait

The Sitting

The sitting is unhurried. Coffee, tea, and quiet if you prefer it. There is controlled light. You are welcome to talk, or not.

Andy paints alla prima—wet into wet, directly from life. Nothing is traced or projected. What appears on the canvas is what happened between painter and sitter, in that room and in that light.

If you have commissioned a charcoal study, you take it home that day. A formal commission continues beyond the sitting, with a final viewing before varnish.

Three Ways to Sit

Commissions

The Study from Life

$750

One sitting · charcoal

A head study from life in a single sitting. Yours that day.

The Formal Commission

From $3,500

From life · life-size · oil on linen

$3,500 head and shoulders

$6,000 three-quarter

$9,000 full figure

The Legacy Commission

By invitation

The portrait · the film · the study · the record

The formal portrait, and a cinematic short film of its making, the framed preparatory study, and archival documentation of the work.

Pricing is honored as published. "Founding Collector Status" is recorded in the practice’s history.

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Care of the Work

Provenance

Every finished portrait leaves the studio conservation-mounted and set in a house-built walnut frame. A label on the reverse records the sitter, the dates of the sittings, and the materials.

On the reverse of every Painting

Sitter, sittings, medium, dimensions, year,

written by hand, as it has always been done.

The Letter

A short letter from the studio each month. One painting, one paragraph. Occasional sittings offered to the list first.

Correspondence