Our Story
Éphé — from the French word — éphémère. The fleeting moment, given permanence. We create custom impressionist art from the photos on your phone. The blurry ones, the candid ones, the ones you didn't know you were taking. We believe the messiest moments are usually the most important ones. And we believe they deserve a wall, not just a camera roll.
Our Belief
Artists have always chosen to paint the everyday. A table set for lunch, a woman by a window, children in a garden. We believe the moments on your phone, or the long-forgotten photos in your drawer, belong in that same tradition. As serious art.
Our Styles
Every photo has a feeling. We have four styles and six palettes, for a total of 24 options per photo. The style you choose shapes how that feeling comes through. How much of the paint you see, how the light sits, how close or how loose the brushstrokes feel. Then, the color palette sets the mood. Together, they transform your photo into something you want to see every day on your wall.
Style: Classic
Controlled, layered brushwork that keeps the likeness close. You can still read every face, every hand — but unmistakably painted. For photos where the person is the whole point.
Style: Dreamy
Light and atmosphere over detail. Figures dissolve softly into the paint, like a memory of a moment rather than a record of it. The short strokes and layered paint are furthest from a photo, but closest to a feeling.
Style: Signature
Bold, confident strokes — the kind made in a single sitting. Sculptural paint, strong contrast, form built from color rather than line. This is the most versatile style and produces consistently beautiful results.
Style: Modern
Broad planes of color, simplified to their essentials. You still know who it is — but built from shape and warmth rather than rendered detail. A mid-century painter's take on your photo.
Palette: Original
Your photo's colors, translated into paint. Nothing added, nothing shifted.
Palette: Muted
Every color knocked back a little. Restrained, timeless, like a well-worn palette.
Palette: Golden
Warm cream, olive, amber skin. Sun-drenched and faded — like Kodachrome film from 1974.
Palette: Moody
Dutch Masters light. One warm source, deep shadow, everything else swallowed by dark.
Palette: Vintage
Soft greens, dusty rose, faded coral — colors that were once vivid, mellowed by decades of light.
Palette: Vibrant
Why I Started Éphé
"I started Éphé because I had a phone full of photos I loved and walls with nothing on them. Real art was expensive. Mass-produced prints didn't feel like me. I wanted something in between: real art, made from real life. The kind of pieces I'd be excited to hang."
— Sarah Neal, Founder and Creative Director
Our Founder
Sarah Neal is an illustrator and creative director with a background at Vogue, Tiffany & Co., and Uber. She also founded Spider Spun, a needlepoint brand bringing traditional handcraft back through modern design. Éphé is her latest venture, and it comes from the same instinct: make something real, make it well, and make it worth keeping.
Studio Service
The kind of pastel portrait that used to take an afternoon and a very patient child. Now it just takes a photo. You can art direct every detail, from the background color to their outfit.
