Baby Narwhal
May 15, 2013
Hanging at The Midwives Collective, SOLD :)
I have had a great desire to paint this slide for a long time. Mainly I was attracted to the colours, and the geometric spherical bushes. My mom was holding a chubby little boy, who was adorable, but I didn’t know who he was. I wanted to paint something else in her arms. I asked my go to creative genius, my husband Adam. He said, a Narwhal, and I said he was nuts, and then painted it. Looks alright! I think my mom and dad were very confused by the decision to add this creature. Sometimes my adventures in painting go flying right over their heads.
The slide was taken in Port Alberni, well before my parents were married, which means early-mid 60′s.
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Batman, Robin and Friends.
April 25, 2013
Batman, Robin and Friends, ~ 32″ x 32″, for sale $375, at The Midwives Collective.
My brother, my hero, Batman. My cousin Shekinah in a clown costume my mom made, and we all wore at Hallowe’en at least once. Not sure who the child on the right is, in the foreground, but notice their little friend I added… a little Robin, a sidekick and a favourite bird so common on the lawn in the spring here.
I get a warm fuzzy feeling for those old linoleum floors, the games we got along with the candy, and the clutter and cheer of this wicked holiday. Even as an adult, dressing up allows a certain silliness and play which is frowned upon in most of our everyday life.
I hope I can revive the old sewing machine to make a few costumes for Frances, or maybe I can just talk Grandma into doing it, ha!
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Party On!
February 01, 2013
Party On, For Sale $395 ~ 24″ x 38″ at Wilde and Sparrow
Chris Purdy in the background, my mom in the foreground in blue with a pixie cut. I have always loved this photo of the girls getting their party-on. The slide is overexposed and a bit blurry, the colours are so fun and appealing. Happy to have finally painted it.
There are a few slides from this night, at least the girls are wearing the same dresses. I want very much to paint the image of left and center girls looking at slides on the couch. Between them is a guy with a stubby beer between his legs. I have painted it before and will paint it again. This time on wood not canvas.
Woot Woot!! Party on!! I am going to Ferris’ tonight to celebrate with a few friends. I have now posted all the new ones so far.
Cheers!
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Port Parking
Port Parking $450, ~26″ x 38″ Sold
John Frahill lived up on a tower in Port Alberni for a number of days to raise money for a cause… I need more details, but he took this image from the tower Dad tells me.
I have painted this before on canvas. There are no rules, I can paint things twice, right? Anyways, this time it’s on wood and I used some different colours. Adam thought I needed to paint this again. It’s all his fault.
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Headless Wonders with Heads
Wonder Heads, For sale $395 ~26″ x 38″ at Wilde and Sparrow
Originally I painted this without the heads, very small cause I was in a hurry and it was going to sell for only $20 at a MOCL fundraiser. Awesome Gord bought it 15 minutes before the event. I had always planned to paint this with the heads, larger, and finally found the time and motivation. Here it is!! Also, I was SO THRILLED to be able to use the Fleur de Lis wallpaper I found at the SOS (second hand store). And I am not afraid to use it again. This is my mom and friend John. Dad is the photographer (from a slide).
Prices are going up. I think they were on the low side before, and Dave from Ferris’, my husband and mother-in-law, and a few others, encouraged me to put higher prices on them.
Okay, so prices are lowered again. I will try higher prices again maybe with the next batch, but for now I am putting them on sale, ha! It’s a fine balance between sales and no sales, money and no money.
On the plus side, if you can’t afford an original, Adam can make prints of them! So they’re still accessible. Another reason the prices (were) up is that I am trying to make a living, I no longer have a part time job. I am at home with Frances and my time is worth a lot more because of her. Well that’s how I feel about it anyways.
Hope you like my new works!
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Fiery Joe
January 31, 2013
Fiery Joe, ~ 30″ x 40″
For Sale – NOT, but prints could be available at Love’s Gallery :)
Ok, Gord and Sarah might be my biggest fans. They called dibs on this painting before I even painted it.
I made a little page on Facebook asking for some of my buddies to post pictures of us partying that would make good paintings. Mara posted this photo her husband Andreas took, of our friend Joe… our handsome, musically multitalented, down to earth, daring, and ‘hot’ I might add, friend. Joe is cherished by all of us very much. Last year at Song Farm, his band “the Tuesdays” wrote a song about him. He is pretty kind and good hearted, always encourages us to play music even when some of our musical talents are nonexistent, eh hem. Of course everyone thought I should paint this picture of him, including myself. So glad I did. And can’t wait to paint more from the can of worms I opened. SOOOOO many great photos I must paint. I can hardly wait.
I LOVE my friends. SO much.
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Ferris’ Upstairs
YAY!! A new venue for my art! Dave at Ferris’ first found me and my art at Rebel Rebel, (now “Reunion”), and I am so grateful for the exposure and support I have had over the years from Claudia and Erin there. At the time, everything I had art wise was hanging in their store, so I had nothing to show for Dave, and let the offer slide. 3 or 4 years later, here we are… Adam printed big copies of my paintings and hung them in his store, which moved right across the street from Ferris’. Dave asked again if I wanted show my work, and BINGO, perfect timing. Great motivation to make some new art, aside from the commissions I’ve been doing. It’s wonderful to stretch paint some things I have been wanting to get too, revisiting the old slides, and finally starting to paint some modern stuff as well. I feel I am just getting started.
Hope I round up so more new spaces to show as the year goes on…
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Canoediana
January 20, 2013
“Canoediana” – Commission, ~18″ x 24″
What an infectious smile!? Christine’s grandma is pictured here relaxing afloat a canoe. When she commissioned this piece, Christine gave me free reign to add colour if I wanted too. I contemplated making the shirt red, but opted out in the end as you can see. I think black and white translates well on wood, and I enjoy the change.
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Camping Patch
January 19, 2013
“Camping Patch” – Commission, ~16″ x 20″, acrylic on wood.
This may have been the hardest picture to paint as of yet. My goodness. I scratched out and repainted my sweet friend Miranda’s little child face. She commissioned this as a gift for her Dad, and I wanted terribly to capture her perfectly. I don’t think I did in the end. I reworked it some more since this photo I took of it. *Sigh*
I did do the best I could, and I am very happy with the painting overall. It was just so hard to paint the girls faces accurately, because of the nature of the wood grain and blurriness of the image.
Miranda graciously accepted the finished product and said her Dad loved it.
The cabbage patch dolls are awesome. I just have to say that.
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January 09, 2013
Maui Wedding ~ 26″ x 38″, commission.
Summer is the season for wedding portraits! Again, I was able to paint this one outside in the sun which is so appropriate for the subject, got me right in the groove. This image is quite large, and I had the added challenge of combining two photos. The little boy substituted from a similar photo. We decided to use the two photos to get the best angles and expressions together.
I had some disproportion from the projector and had a really hard time getting things right. Thank goodness for Adam. I call him in when I can’t seem to find the problem and his perspective saves the day. I got it done, took longer than I thought it would, but I am happy with the results.
Recently, I received an email from the parents who commissioned this for their daughter and son in law. It went over fabulously. Yay!! Got a nice picture of them with it too.
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Happy Beautiful Love
December 19, 2012
Happy Beautiful People in Love!
I was loving life when I was given this commission. It was gorgeous weather outside, I had my easle set up on the deck, baby monitor on hand and was just adoring these faces! They were glowing, and I guess just being so present and focussed, painting these smiling happy, beautiful people… I became infused, filled with their happiness.
I have to add, painting his beard was awesome. Something Van Gogh about it.
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Young Rider
December 16, 2012
Young Rider
Last year I had this sweet commission from Angela. Her daughter had seen my art at the moss street paint in, and put me on her wish list! So nice someone so young would request art for Christmas!
It was a tricky one to paint, because of the profile and angle of her face. Originally, I hadn’t painted in the background and took my best guess on her facial features. Fortunately, Angela was brave enough to suggest the background be painted in, and provided me with a school photo of her daughter. I went back to work on the eve of Christmas eve, and finished it up. I think we were both much happier. Communication is always better than none!
I am finally posting this (almost a year later), as I just figured out how to get photos stored on my camera’s memory (not on the card). Oh ya, just call me if you need some tech support! Ha, or maybe not.
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Custom Thanks
December 15, 2012
Shannon & Eric’s Custom Thank You Card
Again, Shannon knows what she wants! Fantastic, and I liked her directions. I still favour my first drawing though, where their Foxy selves were nude in the canoe. I guess it was a bit too risqué for a wedding thanks ;) Cut offs are cute. Nice touch.
This is also in a postcard format for easy posting. Thank you guys, for trusting me with the creation of your wedding cards! I wish them happiness forever after.
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Shannon & Eric Wedding Invite
Custom Wedding Invite for Shannon & Eric
This was a fun little project, off my beaten path. Shannon saw our wedding invite through a mutual friend, and so had me design hers. I liked how she knew what she wanted, from subject to background details. I did up a few different drawings and we conversed back and forth through email. After I nailed the drawing, I scanned and coloured it in Photoshop. It was a postcard size, details printed on the backside.
It was a great experience, and I’d do it again! In fact, I did soon after. She had me design her Thank You postcards as next…
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Thank Goodness For You!!
September 30, 2012
Thanks from Owl Adam, and Pussycat Wiggy.
Here are our Thank You cards we sent out after our wedding. Really, without the TONNES of help our friends and family put in, the day would have been major blando. Instead, we had such a beautiful, fantastic, colourful event, with good food, drink, dancing and everything. Couldn’t have been better.
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Adam Owl & Leslie Cat
September 08, 2012
Adam Owl, and Leslie Pussycat get Married! Ink drawing scanned and coloured in Photoshop. 4″ x 6″ on brown recycled card stock at Metropol.
Our invite inspired by the Edward Lear poem, The Owl & the Pussycat, which clearly suits us. We got wise old Adam playing guitar, the ocean, catty old me, a pig with a ring in its nose, dancing in the moonlight, and that’s right, a turkey. Jasmin recited it and Skye played the flute at Song Farm, (too much pressure at the wedding I think). I cried none the less. So sweet!!
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The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea |