Help! What to offer for this?

[Easterchickenwings]

A family member (not particularly close, related by marriage) is a talented amateur artist, although as far as I know, she doesn't paint commercially, more of a hobby I think. I asked her some time ago if she would be interested in painting a portrait of a recently deceased close family member for me, but I didn't really get a firm yes or no. I made it clear at the time that I would expect to pay for this and didn't expect it for nothing. I have now found out that the painting has been done and I think she has spent a great deal of time on it, I will see her in a few days to get the portrait and obviously I want to pay her (her work is amazing and I know from other family portraits that she has done that the picture is going to be just great, plus she has done a little something extra in the painting that means a lot to me personally). She is however, lacking in confidence in her ability and genuinely can't see just how talented she is. It sounds like she has fraught herself with worry of getting this picture 'right' and it sounds like she has almost had some sleepless nights over whether it's good enough or not :-(

She has said that she hasn't kept a tally of the time spent on this and has enjoyed doing it and can't really put a monetary value on it. I am absolutely stuck - I really have no idea what I should/could offer. I'm not swimming in money, but the emotional value of what she has done is going to be priceless to me and I desperately want to reflect that in the amount that I pay her.

Can anyone give me even a rough starting point or suggestion?

Do you have local places like pubs or coffee shops that sell art on their walls? Find a similar size/focus piece and say to her - this reminds me of the brilliant work you did, would you be happy with * price tag? Try and benchmark in a way that you are both comfortable with.

Gosh, that's a difficult one. £50 £100?
I have no idea to be honest, I paid £150 for a painting by a friend's boyfriend about ten years ago, he's a member of the Royal Portrait Society and had painted several public figures. Think politicians and very minor aristocracy. But he was doing it not as proper 'commission'- just as a friend so mate's rates. And it was a small one, not the great big formal things he does for his work.

This sounds really hard. I’d probably say £100-250. If she wanted an amount for it she should have said.

It's a bit weird that she didn't confirm she was doing it for you. What if you had taken her silence as a no and commissioned someone else?
If she doesn't tell you the price I'd just give her £50 and some flowers.

As an idea I paid £300 for 2 small and one medium sized canvas painting of some animals I wanted (custom design but gave the artist pretty much free rein or placement and numbers).

Perhaps give her some money and some jewellery or another keepsake for her to enjoy and remember painting it ?
Maybe ask about particular paint brushes or something they need to further their art but not willing to buy it themselves yet?

£300? I’d imagine she would have spent more than 20hrs doing it (probably at least double!). At just over minimum wage of £15ph, 20hrs would be £300 and that wouldn’t include any materials.

If money wasn't a factor I would probably say around £150-£200.

If that's a significant sum for you, then I'd say perhaps £50? £50 is still a really nice sum that would enable her to treat herself to something that perhaps she wouldn't do otherwise.

It depends on how big it is and the materials. If it’s oil on canvas or board just the materials would have cost more than £50. If you had seen it in a shop (I know you wouldn’t as it’s of a relative, but hypothetically), how much would you have been happy to have paid?

I think your starting point should be at least £200. It’s a precious original that she spent a lot of time on, and art materials are expensive. I used to be an artist, this was my selling point when I was at ‘skilled amateur’ stage and that was underpriced even 15 years ago.

I paid my sister in law £250 for a pet portrait. I think £200-£300 would be fine.

Thanks everyone, I had around ££150-200 mark in my head, so good to know I'm not too far off the mark.

This.

If you’re not sure why don’t you look at similar work by other equally good/bad artists and what the going rate for that is.

Sounds like it was stressful. If you give her less surely that’s a bit mean when she tried so hard for you? Especially if you can afford it.