All you have to do is ask! The first step is talking to Sam about what you have in mind. The best paintings result from letting Sam take your required elements (your airplane flying over water, for example) and running with it. You’re paying for his creativity and vision, and he’s pretty good at making the finished painting convey the feeling and kind of detail you want. Prices vary and there’s quite a wide range. You can commission a good-sized colored pencil original for $2,000. Acrylic paintings range from about $5,000 to $15,000, depending on size and complexity. Just to give you an idea: a 15″ x 30″ painting with your airplane in the sky and clouds for background would usually be $5,000. For a larger painting with more planes, people, hangars, homes, etc., the cost goes up. (It make sense because it will take Sam longer to paint it.) You get sketches to approve before Sam goes ahead with the actual painting. A deposit is required when the commission is accepted to reserve your place on Sam’s commission list. A second payment is due when the sketch is approved, and the balance is due before the original is shipped. Each of three payments are usually a third of the total cost. Go to our Commissions page for more information. Better yet, call Mindy at Lyons Studio, 863-644-5010, and ask her anything you’d like to know.

The answer really varies. Some paintings require a good deal of research. Some have many different elements, so completing them is very time-consuming. Others come together with less effort. The best answer ranges from a few weeks to a few months.

Sorry, no, we ship only within the United States.

The word is pronounced “gee-clay” (or close to that) and it defines a print that was produced one at a time, as opposed to a continuous print run of hundreds of prints. You have better color and quality control with giclees and they are generally more expensive than mass-produced prints. At Lyons Studio, we always try to give you extra value for your money so right now we don’t charge extra for our prints that are giclees. Sam’s earlier prints were produced by a print publisher. Now he mostly produces the prints one at a time on a professional printer he has at the Studio. The inks used are archival inks and are supposed to last 100 years. (We’re not sure who can vouch for that!)

That’s what we call an Artist Proof. An Artist Proof print doesn’t look any different than a regular Limited Edition, it’s just numbered differently. If the Limited Edition has 300 prints, there would  probably be 30 APs. (It’s generally 10 percent of the number of Limited Edition.) This status is noted on the print. Sam would number it, for example, 3/30AP. Collectors prefer APs because their value increases even more than a Limited Edition as time goes by. Also, there are fewer of them so, again, that makes them more valuable.

That stands for “signed and numbered.” All Limited Edition prints are signed and numbered. Besides the signature already appearing on the print from when Sam signed the original, Sam signs each one personally. He also assigns each print a particular number. For example, you might see 52/300 penciled in the lower right or left hand corner of a print. Some people prefer low numbers; some people collect a particular number because it holds a special meaning for them.