Valentine’s Day in December

Charlotte, N.C.—Consider it one more thing the Internet has changed.

Not so long ago, only the wealthy were likely to commission museum-quality portraits by skilled artists to capture the likenesses of their loved ones or themselves.

But these days, that’s become an affordable luxury, thanks to the enterprising ideas of Sentimentalportraits.biz, a North Carolina-based portrait studio.

Sentimental Portraits is using the ease and convenience of web technology to bring the timeless appeal of traditional painting and drawing to a wide, national clientele.

It’s a clientele that runs the gamut from executives who want official portraits to couples celebrating weddings and anniversaries, proud parents and equally-proud pet owners, people commemorating deceased loved ones and, at times, even such subjects as a boy and his bike, according to Donald Nagel, the company’s founder and president.

“We’ve painted everything from brides to a man on his Harley,” Nagel said. “People come to us for pet portraits and retirement gifts, and for every occasion you can imagine.”

The portraits are available as either paintings or charcoal drawings in a variety of sizes, with prices starting as low as $299 for a drawing and $399 for an oil painting.

“These are true museum-quality works of art,” Nagel said, adding that all work is done by hand by trained artists and no aspect of the work is ever machine generated.

The portraits can be created from either traditional or digital photographs, he explained, and for some customers they even become a way to reinvent reality. In addition to the most traditional, straightforward portraits, Sentimental Portraits artists can also perform what the company calls “magics” by turning a cluttered photo background into a solid backdrop or even combining multiple photos into a single portrait.

That last technique means that people separated by long distances, or even by generations, can appear side by side in their painting.

Nagel said he canvassed and combed galleries nationwide—and occasionally overseas— to locate and recruit a far-flung stable of artists with the talents and skills he needed.

“It took me nine months to put together 12 artists, each specializing in a particular medium, such as oil, watercolor, charcoal, or pastel,” he said. “And then within those mediums, I had to find artists who specialize in faces, landscapes, pets, businesses, cars, hair, hands, and so on.”

Nagel said the company just recently incorporated—in March of this year—but it has been in operation for more than five years, building a growing base of satisfied customers, dozens of whom have posted testimonials on the website.

More information is available online at www.sentimentalportraits.biz



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