The two of you, and the place you chose to begin.

Most wedding paintings zoom in on the couple. I paint wider.

You didn't choose your venue by accident. Maybe it was the way the peaks catch the last light, the barn your family has known for years, or the river you've fished since you were kids. That place is part of your story, so I paint it that way: the land and sky first, and the two of you inside it, at the scale of real life.

Twelve years painting Montana, its wildlife and its open country taught me how this light moves across a mountain and a meadow. On your wedding day, I bring all of that to one canvas.

This painting is for you if:

• you picked your venue for the view, and want to keep it
• you'd rather have art for your walls than another album on a shelf
• you love paintings with texture and movement, the kind where you can see the brushwork up close
• you want something one of a kind, made by hand, in the room, while your people celebrate around you

If you're picturing a tight close-up of your faces, I may not be your painter. My paintings give you the two of you and the whole of the place.

I arrive a couple of hours before your guests and start where the land is: the ridge line, the trees, the light as it is that afternoon. By the time you walk out, the place is already on the canvas. I'm waiting for you.

Then I paint you into it, at whichever moment we chose together: the vows, the kiss, the exit. When the ceremony ends, I move with you to the reception and finish the painting there, in front of your guests.

I work in a quiet corner about five feet by six. Your guests wander over between drinks to watch the painting come together. Some of them stay a while. Near the end of the night, you'll see it: the first painting of your marriage, in the place it began.

You'll know yourselves the moment you see it: the way you stand together, the way he leans in, the dress catching the breeze, the dog at your heels. I paint you with real care, as a portrait. But it's a painting, and it's meant to be one. It isn't trying to be a photograph. Every brushstroke is chosen, so you get the likeness and the feeling of the day together, held in the place where it happened.

After the wedding, the painting comes back to my studio in Livingston for finishing. I refine the light and the details we talked about, then varnish it. It's painted in highest-quality acrylic, rich and textured and made to last for generations.

Within 8 weeks it's delivered to you, ready to hang. Most couples put it where they'll pass it every day.

Live wedding paintings start at $4,000 for a 24×30-inch original. I'm happy to paint larger or smaller to suit your home and your scene. Size is about the composition, not the price, so a smaller canvas doesn't mean a lower investment. The final price also reflects how many people are in the scene and travel.

There's no travel fee within an hour of Livingston, Montana. For the right couple I travel well beyond it. I've painted weddings in the Arizona desert and on the coast outside Boston.

I paint five weddings a year. That's on purpose: each one gets my full attention, from our first conversation to the day the painting is delivered.