All you need to do is either know about Painted Light from a past experience or read the "ABOUT" section below and you will want to bid on this gift certificate. Any project you give them will be done with care as if it were their own. You really cannot go wrong with this item!

ABOUT: Walk through the door at Painted Light, and you’ll get it right away: you’re in a neighborhood shop that’s welcoming, creative, unpretentious, eclectic—a meditation studio wrapped around a beehive. Pretty things to look at, interesting objects to ponder, artwork and frame samples everywhere. A bit “off the beaten track”, but well worth the journey.

“PAINTED LIGHT” refers to the process of adding oil color to black-and-white photographs—the passion that started things off back in 1990. The owner of Painted Light, Barbara Laing's, diverse background in photography, multi-media, filmmaking and inventing cocktail punches left her unfit for a regular job. She began hand-tinting photographs as “art” pieces, and showed them at weekend fairs.

But the true calling for her fledgling business was revealed in one little sample among all others: a hand-colored photo restoration of the West Virginia home her father grew up in. Customers regaled her with stories of their own photographic tragedies and, not knowing even where to take them, this service seemed to fill a huge gap.

Hand-tinting is only one aspect of restoration and so it has been Barbara's work with antique black-and-white and sepia images that really built this aspect of the business, connecting with customers’ desires to deepen their relationship with their own histories through their family photo collections. After establishing herself in the eclectic community of Andersonville on the far northside of Chicago, custom framing services were added and she became Painted Light Photography & Framing Gallery. This combination of services—in addition to being the neighborhood “general store” carrying gifts and artwork—has allowed Painted Light to grow into the “small shop with expansive capabilities” that they are today, including those cocktail punches served at every art opening and party Barbara hosts.

At Painted Light they set themselves apart by providing customers with a attentive atmosphere in which to address their individual needs with openness and sensitivity to both aesthetics and price, giving their customers above-and-beyond a “bottom line” approach to doing business. Painted Light takes the small jobs as well as the big ones, approaching every project as a unique challenge, and they try their best to do whatever the client needs in the time that they need it. Painted Light has become known for their personal touch, wide range of available services and options, and executing projects with skilled and creative craftsmanship.

Painted Light is one of Andersonville's "independents" since 1990!!