Autumn collection · 2026
Painted by hand.One at a time.
Original oil paintings by Hana Ruel, made in a small studio in Lisbon. 6 originals available, each one the only one.
Every stroke,
by hand.
Every painting here is one of a kind. Oil on Belgian linen, built up over weeks, signed on the back, and shipped stretched and ready to hang. When it's sold, it's gone.
The collection.
Hung to scale with each other, centred at 145 cm like in a gallery. A red dot means it has sold.
Why an original
Prints are flat. Paint isn't.
Look closer.
Knife marks, ridges, drips, the odd thumbprint. Move over the painting to see the brushwork at three times its size.
No prints. No editions.
Every painting exists exactly once.
Deep stretcher bars with painted edges, so it hangs without a frame.
Crated, insured, door to door.
Wrapped in glassine, boxed in a wooden crate, and tracked all the way.
Signed on the back.
With a certificate of authenticity, dated and titled by hand.
Try the brush
Pick up a brush.
This canvas is still wet. Choose a colour and a brush, then drag across it. The paint runs dry the longer you drag, just like the real thing.
Your turn. Drag to paint.
Will it fit
See it on your wall. Before it's on your wall.
Pick a painting to see it at true scale on a 2.7 m wall, above a standard 210 cm sofa.
Step 1 of 6Stretch
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Process
Six steps. Two to six weeks.
Oil paint dries slowly, and that's the point. Scroll to watch a painting come together.
- Step 1
Stretch the linen.
Raw Belgian linen goes over kiln-dried pine bars, stapled every 5 cm and pulled tight like a drum.
3.8 cm stretcher · 390 g/m² linen - Step 2
Prime it.
Three coats of gesso, sanded between each, so the oil sits on the surface and never touches the fibres.
3 coats · 24 hours between - Step 3
Wash and sketch.
A thin wash of burnt sienna takes the glare off the white. The composition goes on in charcoal.
Burnt sienna · vine charcoal - Step 4
Block in the big shapes.
Sky, sea, sun. Big brushes, thin paint. Each layer carries a little more oil than the one below it. Painters call this fat over lean.
Flat 14 · lean mixture - Step 5
Layers and light.
The slow part. Reflections, the boat, the last glints on the water. Days go by between sessions.
Round 4 · 2–5 weeks - Step 6
Varnish and sign.
Once it's dry to the touch it gets retouch varnish and a signature, then goes into a crate with its certificate.
Retouch varnish · signed on the back
The studio
Hi, I'm Hana.
I paint in a small room above a bakery in Lisbon, which means everything I make smells faintly of bread for the first week. I work on four or five canvases at once and finish about thirty a year.
The studio is open to visitors on the first Saturday of every month. Come say hi.
Commissions · 3 spots open for spring
A painting made for one wall. Yours.
Tell me about the room, the light and the colours you love. I'll send two small colour studies before I start on the big canvas.