How big does a painting in a lobby actually need to be?
Start from viewing distance, not from the wall. In a reception area people first see the piece from six to eight metres away, across the room, usually while walking. At that distance anything under about 40 inches on its long side reads as a framed notice rather than a painting — the eye registers that something is there and does not stop. Above roughly 48 inches it becomes the thing the room is arranged around, which is normally the point of putting art in a lobby at all.
A boardroom is the opposite case. People sit three to four metres away and look at the same surface for an hour, so a piece between 30 and 48 inches has room to hold attention without dominating the far wall of a video call. A corridor is different again: nobody stands still in a corridor, so a series of smaller works spaced along it does more than one large piece that can only be seen at an angle.
Two practical constraints usually decide the final number. Measure the clear wall between the ceiling grid and whatever furniture, skirting or wall base sits below, and measure the door and lift the work has to pass through to get there. Our note on choosing the scale for a wall sets out how to do that with paper on the wall before anything is ordered.
What is available at this scale right now?
Six originals in the catalogue are large enough to carry a commercial wall on their own. All six were available when this page was written.
- Under Media Cobweb (2019) — mixed media, collage, acrylic and resin, 60 by 80 inches. The largest work in the gallery, and the only one built at true lobby scale.
- 5 Shades of Blue (2022) — acrylic and collage on plywood sealed with resin, four feet by four feet. A square, which suits a wall with nothing beneath it.
- Summer Languor (2020) — acrylic on canvas, 48 by 36 inches, reading horizontally. Built by spinning and weaving paint rather than brushing it, so the interest is in the surface.
- Traces of the Forgotten (2025) — mixed media, 30 by 48 inches, upright: rusted textures, metallic remnants and a fractured circle.
- Whisper (2025) — mixed media on panel, 32.7 by 42.9 inches, made with wood and rust.
- Fall Waltz (2019) — acrylic and resin on fiberboard mounted on a stained and glazed wood panel, 36 by 36 inches and 1.9 inches deep.
The catalogue moves, so confirm a specific piece by phone before you build a proposal around it. Work that has sold stays on the site marked Sold or Private Collection rather than being deleted — sold, private or available explains why, and how to read the label. The full listing is on the artworks page.
Will office lighting work with the painting or against it?
Against it, usually, until somebody aims a light at it. Most commercial ceilings are lit with even, downward general lighting designed so a desk is legible everywhere. That is the worst case for a painting: it flattens the surface and leaves the wall brighter at the top than at the bottom. One aimed fitting changes the piece completely. The Canadian Conservation Institute's note on track lighting is the practical reference for how such fittings are positioned.
Then there is glare, and this matters more here than in a home. Several of these works are sealed under poured resin, which cures to a hard, glass-like film — it deepens the colour underneath the way water darkens a stone, and it gives the work a reflective face that behaves like glazing without the glass. On a wall facing a glass curtain wall or a bank of ceiling fittings, that face will hold a reflection. The fix is angle: hang the piece where the reflected image is a wall rather than a window, or choose a canvas work such as Summer Languor for that particular wall instead.
Lamp choice also changes what the colours do. Colour temperature and colour rendering are covered in the CCI's page on light, ultraviolet and infrared, and the difference is visible rather than technical — the same rust and gold surface reads warm under one lamp and grey under another. The same painting in different light shows what that looks like in practice, and a resin finish in a room goes through reflection at greater length.
Is a commercial building a safe place for an original?
Generally yes, with three specific things to avoid. Acrylic on canvas is rated as having low sensitivity to incorrect relative humidity in the CCI's table on incorrect relative humidity, which covers most of the work here. Offices are also more stable than houses in one useful respect: the heating and cooling runs to a schedule rather than to somebody's mood.
The three things to avoid are all placement decisions, and all of them are free to get right at the planning stage:
- Do not hang directly above or beside a supply vent. A wall that gets a jet of dry heated air every winter morning is being cycled harder than the rest of the room, and nothing about the building average tells you that.
- Keep it out of direct sun. A south or west curtain wall will put a moving rectangle of sunlight across a wall for part of the day, and light exposure accumulates rather than resets.
- Tell the cleaning contractor. This sounds trivial and is the single most common cause of damage in a commercial space. Spray glass cleaner and a cloth on a resin face is exactly what a well-meaning cleaner will do unless somebody has said otherwise in writing.
Canadian winters add one more, at the delivery stage rather than after. A painting brought in from a cold vehicle should reach room temperature still wrapped, so that moisture condenses on the packaging instead of on the surface. Winter air and the wall covers the same ground for the months when the building is dry.
Buy what exists, or commission the size you need?
Buy what exists when a finished piece fits the wall, because you can see exactly what you are approving and it can be on the wall within days. Commission when the wall has a dimension nothing in the catalogue matches — a long reception counter run, a double-height atrium, a narrow pier between two windows — or when the space has a fixed palette the work has to sit inside.
The constraint on a commission is physical, not administrative. Layered acrylic, poured resin and wax paste each have to cure hard before the work can be moved at all, and that stage cannot be shortened without marking the surface for good. Plan in months rather than weeks, and start the conversation before the fit-out schedule is fixed rather than after. The steps are set out on the commission a painting page and in how commissions work.
One thing worth deciding early either way: whether the piece belongs to the company or to a person. It changes who insures it, what happens at a move, and whether it stays on that wall when the lease ends.
How do you get an approval when the site shows no prices?
You ask, and you get the figure for that specific piece. Prices are on request for every work on this site, sitewide, and there is no online checkout — nothing is dispatched automatically and every piece is an enquiry. That is not a sales tactic; each work is a one-off, and a single published number would be the only thing on the page that was not specific to the painting in front of you.
For an internal approval or a capital request, ask for the details in writing and you will have what a finance or facilities process normally wants: title, year, medium, exact dimensions, and the condition the piece is in. Each work is signed and leaves the gallery with a Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist, naming those same particulars — which is the document an insurer or a valuer will later ask to see. What a certificate of authenticity actually says explains what it does and does not cover, and what to ask before you buy lists the rest of the questions worth putting on that call.
If the work is going onto a company asset register or an insurance schedule, do it at the point of purchase rather than a year later. Insuring an original you own covers how originals are described for that purpose.
How does a large painting actually get onto the wall?
Three questions decide it, and all three are worth settling before delivery day rather than on it. What does the piece weigh; what is the wall made of; and who is fixing it.
Weight is the one people underestimate. A four-foot square panel built up in acrylic, collage and poured resin is substantially heavier than a canvas of the same size, because the resin and the rigid board are doing the work that stretched fabric does not. Drywall with no backing behind it is not a fixing for that, and neither is a single hook. A large piece wants fixings into studs, into blocking or into the concrete behind, spread across two points so the work hangs level and stays level.
Access is the second: measure the doors, the corridor turns and the lift car, and check the diagonal rather than the width. A 60 by 80 inch work goes through openings a smaller building does not have. Ask about weight, fixings and delivery when you call — those are specific to the piece, and we would rather answer them before the work leaves the gallery than afterwards. Shipping an original across Canada covers what happens when the destination is further than a drive.
There is more about Sergei Troshin on the about page, and any question is welcome through the contact page. The gallery is at 473 Simonston Blvd, Markham, ON, open daily 9:00 to 18:00 with viewings by appointment so that somebody is there to let you in.
Questions people ask
What size painting suits a reception or lobby wall?
Work from viewing distance. Seen from six to eight metres, anything under roughly 40 inches on the long side reads as a notice rather than a painting; above about 48 inches it becomes the piece the room is arranged around. A boardroom, seen from three or four metres, works well between 30 and 48 inches.
Does a resin-sealed painting cause glare in an office?
It can. A poured resin coat cures to a hard, glass-like film with a reflective face that behaves like glazing without the glass. On a wall facing a window or a bank of ceiling lights it will hold a reflection, so either change the angle or choose a canvas work for that wall.
Is office air a risk to an original painting?
Less than people expect. Acrylic on canvas is rated low sensitivity to incorrect relative humidity by the Canadian Conservation Institute. The real risks are placement: directly above a supply vent, in direct sun from a glass wall, or within reach of a cleaning crew nobody has briefed.
Can a painting be commissioned to fit a specific wall?
Yes, and that is the usual answer when a wall has a dimension nothing finished happens to match. Allow months rather than weeks: layered acrylic, resin and wax paste must cure hard before the work can be handled, and that stage cannot be shortened.
Why are there no prices on the website?
Every work is a one-off, so the figure is specific to the piece. Prices are on request sitewide and there is no online checkout — name the painting and you will get the price for that painting, with no obligation attached to asking.
