Live wedding painter, Portugal
In the United States this is usually called live wedding painting. Rui Charnock works in ink and watercolour on paper rather than oils on canvas, which is why a six-hour booking leaves you with about twelve finished pieces instead of one large canvas. He is based in Lisbon and covers every wedding region in Portugal.
This page exists because the word changes at the Atlantic. Everything on it is the same service described everywhere else on the site — but if you are planning from the States, three things genuinely are different.
Ink and watercolour against oil on canvas
| Ink and watercolour, on paper | Oil or acrylic, on canvas | |
|---|---|---|
| Pieces from a six-hour day | About twelve | One |
| Finished | Studio washes, posted within two weeks | Weeks to months afterwards |
| On the night | Finished sheets leave with you | Canvas usually leaves with the artist |
| Guest portraits as well | Yes, 50–70 in three hours | Rarely |
| Getting it home | Flat, in hold luggage | Crated and shipped |
| What you hang | A group, or a book | One wall piece |
Painter, illustrator, and why the word matters
A live wedding painter, in the US sense, usually works in oil or acrylic on a single large canvas, spends most of the day on one scene, and finishes it in the weeks afterwards. That is a real and lovely thing and it is not this.
This is ink line and watercolour on paper, drawn fast, many times over. Roughly two finished pieces for every hour booked. A six-hour wedding produces about twelve of them, plus whatever guest portraits get handed out on the night.
Neither is better. They are different objects: one wall piece, or a set you can hang as a group, split between families, and put in a book.
What it costs, in dollars
Prices are set in euros and published in full on the pricing page — there is no form in front of them, which is unusual in this category on either side of the Atlantic.
For a US comparison: live wedding painting in the States commonly runs from around $2,500 upwards for a single canvas. Portuguese and UK-market pricing for live wedding art sits well below that. If you are marrying in Portugal, this is one of the few line items where the destination genuinely saves you money rather than just moving it.
Card and bank transfer both work. The euro amount is the amount; I do not add a currency margin on top of what your bank already takes.
How the artwork gets home
Anything finished leaves with you on the night in a rigid folder, which is the option most couples take — it fits flat in hold luggage and it does not need a customs declaration, because you are carrying your own property.
Anything still wet comes back to the studio for its final washes and is posted. To a US address that is a tracked courier, three to seven working days, in a rigid tube or a flat box depending on size. Shipping is charged at cost and quoted before you book.
Duty on original artwork entering the US is generally nil under the tariff heading for original drawings and paintings, but I am an illustrator rather than a customs broker, and the entry is yours to make. Everything is declared honestly and valued at what you paid.
Planning it from six time zones away
Lisbon is five hours ahead of New York and eight ahead of Los Angeles, so an email sent from the East Coast at nine in the morning is answered the same working day. Everything gets a reply inside 24 hours regardless.
You are unlikely to meet me before the wedding, and that is fine — nothing about this booking needs a tasting or a walkthrough. A running order and the venue name is genuinely the whole brief.
Where the venue is decides the travel line, and every region's driving time and travel band is published on the coverage page. The Algarve and the Douro are overnight trips; Lisbon, Sintra, Cascais and Comporta are not.
Send the date and the venue. You will have a reply within 24 hours, whatever time zone it was sent from.
Check your date WhatsAppNext
Check your date
Tell me when and where. If I am free, I will come back with what it costs and roughly how the day would run — usually the same evening.