Memorial

There are many ways to commemorate the passing of a loved one. Floral tributes are traditionally the first step in expressing sympathy and grief, with a memorial gravestone a long term symbol of remembrance. With burial space becoming sparse combined with the majority of people choosing cremation, the commissioning of gravestones has declined in the UK.

Oil portraits were historically used to honour family members and handed down from generation to generation as a permanent record of a family's ancestry. A memorial portrait can be in addition to, or take the place of floral tributes or a gravestone.

Founder's story

With both my parents resting back home in Italy, I wanted a memorial closer to home and not at a distant graveyard.

I must have gone through hundreds of old faded photographs with jagged edges from a very different era. Should I choose the photograph of my father, the tailor at his workshop? or the one of him as part of a band? Where do I start with my mother, should I choose one of the many happy photographs with her sisters? or should my last memory be from her time at the hospice?

Of the photographs of my parents together, how do I decide on photographs where they were younger or older?.....It felt therapeutic going through those old photographs, bringing back some long forgotten memories. It took some time to narrow down the choice. I decided to have two portraits, the first of my father using the photograph my mother chose for his gravestone in Italy.

I got taken back to a distant memory the other day, I was listening to internet radio and the song "Dance With My Father" by Luther Vandross came on. Every time I hear it, a different flashback occurs, on this occassion, I remembered my Father's passion for buying 12 inch vinyl records from the Benny Goodman jazz era and telling me these songs will never be forgotton. I'm not sure I understood at the time, I'm glad to say, I'm begining to now.

Through my own story, I hope to have given you an insight into how an oil portrait is a unique way to honour a family member. A portrait represents a record of a family's ancestory and is a unique investment in your family for the present day and beyond.

"By preserving a special moment in time, you honour the past and lay the foundation to a family legacy with an heirloom to be treasured forever by future generations"

Ugo Domizioli