PORTRAITURE
Commissioned Portraits
For us, a portrait is about more than capturing a likeness. It is a way of communicating across time, preserving the people, places, relationships and memories that make a person’s story their own.
From our Wellington studio, we create original commissioned portraits in close collaboration with our clients. We begin by developing the composition together, considering the people, places and details they would like to preserve within the painting.
Throughout the process, we balance a faithful likeness with our distinctive style, creating a portrait that tells a story as well as representing the people within it.
PORTRAITS
Optimist Family
Optimist Family was created as a celebration of one family’s cherished memories of their time in Wellington.
Each family member is connected to a favourite sporting activity, while the house where they once lived anchors the painting to a particular place. Together, these elements create a playful and symbolic portrait of family life, belonging and shared history.
Mike Joy
This portrait depicts freshwater ecologist and environmental advocate Mike Joy fighting to protect the rivers of Aotearoa New Zealand from pollution.
Surrounded by rushing water, he appears as both activist and guardian. The waka represents his connection with Māori communities in the protection of New Zealand’s waterways, while the surrounding pollution and flowing water evoke the threats facing these ecosystems and the importance of their protection.
Mannheim Tower
Mannheim Tower was commissioned by a collector for his new home, where the tower depicted in the painting can also be seen through the windows.
The work explores the couple’s relationship through playful and provocative imagery. The architecture becomes more than a backdrop, connecting their intimate world with their new surroundings and creating a theatrical portrait of attraction, desire and complicity.
Hotere Draws
Hotere Draws was commissioned by collectors who owned several original drawings by New Zealand artist Ralph Hotere.
Inspired by the story that Hotere sometimes paid his bills with drawings, the painting depicts him in the act of creating one. We incorporated the collectors’ old car and the landscape visible from their window, bringing together the artist, their collection, personal memories and the surrounding New Zealand landscape.
The Woman in Blue
Woman in Blue tells the story of a woman commissioned to establish a new hospital in one of the Gulf states. Despite the intensity of her work, she found herself deeply isolated. Her closest companion became a stray cat she discovered there and eventually brought home to Wellington. The portrait places them together in a lush, dreamlike landscape inspired by the paintings of Henri Rousseau.
The Diplomats
In The Diplomats, we sought to preserve both the places in which the three subjects had lived and the tenderness that connected them.
The composition brings these locations and relationships together within a single portrait, reflecting our approach to commissioned work: giving equal consideration to the likeness of the people we paint and the story the finished work is intended to carry.
The Lobb’s
A family portrait reuniting members of the Lobb family as they appeared in their twenties. Behind them, the coastal promenade, the famous Rotonda and Shell tower represent places connected to important stages in their lives. Together, the five figures create a timeless portrait of shared roots, family history and enduring bonds.
Warrior in Love
A portrait of a couple with a shared devotion to kendo and a deep connection to Japan. Mount Taranaki rises behind them, but within the imagined landscape it could almost be Mount Fuji. The portrait brings together two places important to the couple, creating a playful and personal fusion of New Zealand and Japan.
Eastbourne Family
Eastbourne captures a family memory from the 1970s, preserved like a faded photograph slowly returning to life. Through painting, the colours, faces and seaside atmosphere of those happy days emerge again, transforming an old photograph into a vivid recollection of family, togetherness and time spent by the sea.
Blossoming Couple
Commissioned to commemorate the couple’s first meeting in Christchurch in the 1960s, Blossoming Couple captures a formative moment in their shared history. They drove their first cars along an avenue lined with cherry trees in full bloom, with the blossoming trees becoming a poetic symbol of a relationship just beginning — a personal memory of love, youth and the passage of time.
Commission a Portrait
Every commissioned portrait begins with a conversation. We work closely with our clients to understand the people, relationships, places and memories they would like their painting to capture.
Whether you have a clear idea in mind or would like us to help develop the composition with you, we can guide you through the process of creating an original portrait that is personal to you and unmistakably Heimler & Proc.
If you have a story you would like us to bring to canvas, we would love to hear from you.