Kiona found my work at the Moss Street Paint-In this year, and commissioned this piece for food from her hobby farm in Duncan.  She gave me a tonne of pictures to choose from, one with the boy pictured here, and there was another with him holding a frog.  I melded the concepts together.  The painting is a gift for her husband’s birthday.

We dropped the painting off to her on our way up island… what a beautiful family and homestead!  Me want, the rustic house, the duck, chickens, garden, dog, goats, adorable children, oh man, so awesome!

Here’s the photo I used:

For Grace’s birthday in January, I painted this of her and her mom.  Grace, fun, gorgeous, childlike.  I adore her.

~Sold~

I see Don and Danny, the guy who looks like Greg, maybe Chris Purdy Claudette?  I get such a kick out of seeing my parents’ friends living it up, enjoying their youth.  It could be us now.

“Road Trip” for Sarah from Grace and me  17″ x 24.5″

This just looks like a happy place.  Who doesn’t love a little old red truck, a tie-dye blanket and road trip?  There’s little detail of the landscape, but it feels Canadiana enough, jean suit, water, trees and sky.

Sarah is a phenomenal show girl, with class and sexy hutspah which will make your jaw stop, drop and drool.  And beyond that, she is an amazing woman with a feminine prowess, confidence, beauty and kindness.  SO glad to have become closer to her, fellow scorpion self over the last few years.

xo

“Trouble” for sale at Mille Fiori Spa $250, 26″ x 31″

Oh mom, you are (or at least were) Trouble, with a capital T.  Dad took this slide from below, looking up to no good.  She’s smoking ‘Sportsman’s’ she tells me, and she fully admits, yes, she was probably up to no good.  I was going to paint a raccoon over her arm, but decided the look on her face was giving her away well enough.  This is also painted on a used piece of door-skin from the mobile home Adam and Chad had gutted and reno’d for resale.

“Blinded”, 21″ x 31″

This hunk of wood paneling had white paint on it to start.  The bluish white glow reminded me of this slide of Regan Purdy’s ma, and decided it’d be perfect for the painting.  I do want to include more animals, and objects into the photos I work with, so was happy to see how the owls would fit.  In her left hand, there was a towel which was shaped perfectly to slip in an owl.  The darkness behind just suits a creature of the night, and also, her daughter Regan’s sort of totem animal is an owl.  Boom.  Done.

~Sold~ , 25.5″ x 38″

I am stuck on a title for this one. ‘Up Skirt’, I thought… Adam suggested ‘Cross Your Legs,’ and ‘Works of Art’.  I am open to other suggestions.

I like how the woman on the left looks serious about a conversation and with the legs leaning out of the picture on the far right (probably my mom).  Gail in the middle is focused on the cameraman (my dad) and on the right, she just seems confused.  I do wonder what they’re talking about, and if it was my Uncle Henning who painted the abstract above.  I love it.  Where is it now?

Jared spotted my art in Rebel Rebel, and seeked me out to commission this.  I have to admit, when I first saw the photo I was a bit scared.  It wasn’t very detailed, kinda grainy, and the screaming baby… I thought it would be super hard to paint.  BUT, the photo was absolutely charming and I embraced the challenge.  Turns out, it went smoothly and not as much trouble as I thought, phewf!  Who would have thunk it?  3 boys, not too much trouble ;)  However, it took me 2 months to finish it, yikes!

Jared is screaming in the laps of his older brothers, and I’m sure he’s been tormented by them consistently to this very day ;)  Siblings, gotta love it!

Commissioned by Jay Brown, for his brother’s wedding, 16″ x  20″.

An engagement smooch, on the beach, wind blowing, waves crashing, ahhh romance.  I used some gold paint to try and capture the sun shining on the strands of her hair, and the glint in her necklace.  I have no idea if these folks liked the painting at all… maybe it will be like the fruit bowl they accidentally “break”, or maybe I will see it in the thrift store amongst other dejected art.  I really hope not.  It was tricky and I was happy with how it turned out, myself.  It was a whirlwind of a wedding I hear, so I haven’t heard from Jason about the reaction (if he was even there when they opened it).

Sometimes it’s really scary to let art out into the world.

This is my brother and his friend Rubin, probably before I was born in Port Alberni, BC.  I am not sure which dog that is, (we always had dogs growing up)… maybe Pokey?

I wanted to include something those boys would be dreaming of, up in the sky where I had a large area of board I wanted to fill.  My little ponies, fluffy bunnies and owls seemed all wrong.  X-Wing fighter?  Perfect.  Thanks Adam for the suggestion.  So true, my brother was really into those.  And thanks Jasmin for buying this one!

I just want to take this opportunity to say I love my brother, that I looked up to him as a little girl, stealing his penny collection, his AC~DC, The Cars, and Led Zeppelin tapes, pretty much idolizing everything he did.  I wanted to draw what he drew, listen to his music (obviously) and follow him and his older cute boy friends around.  I remember showing him lyrics and poems I wrote for Megadeth in hopes they would publish them in a song.   Boy my brother would be proud then, and think I was really cool.  Um, now that’s just embarrassing.

Even though, I worshiped my brother from a young age, I don’t think that’s come across in our adult relationship.  Instead I have been busted on numerous occasions being a little snot, dis’ing his style, raging on him for raging, (some temper issues in the fam. I guess ;) and criticizing his lifestyle.  It’s a roll I learned as little sister, which is a hard habit to break.

But I am trying here, to say… I love you bro with all my heart, and I hope even though I never made it as a lyricist for Megadeth, you still have a special place in your heart for your snotty nosed little sis.

xo

Acrylic, pen and polyurethane on wood paneling.

I took this painting to a good home today, a fellow artist, broke and struggling within the confines of art school (hope she doesn’t mind me saying that).  I also ran in to Ken Gordon today, who brought Ashley McNeil (above patron and artist) to my art party at the MOCL.  Further more, I saw my art class supervisor for the honours program Lynda Gammon, just yesterday, first time in a long time (I graduated in 2003).  What does any of this have to do with this painting?  Nothing really.

But Lynda and I talked about how there are all kinds of artists, coming from all kinds of angles, and just because you’re not showing in galleries in NYC doesn’t mean you’re not an artist.  Ken talked about how Ashley is feeling like her paintings are lacking in depth, even though she has the skill, to Look and see and draw from that.  Looking and seeing are essential.  Ken sees a bar stool and can play out a theatrical bar stool *smash* interpreting the political angst in Afghanistan.  I see relationships, tensions, love, stories in photos and between drawings and animals I draw, and just in flaws and marks I make.  I am sure Ashley is on the tip of finding what speaks to her.  Don’t give up Ashley!  School is intimidating, but what’s worse is how we fight ourselves and prevent ourselves from making stuff, and stop looking and seeing magic.  It’s there Ashley in you, I am sure of it.

Cheesy and long winded, yes.

But man, art school was SO HARD, because I was very very bad at taking criticism.  I cried a LOT.  Looking back, I think they were just trying to get me to talk about my work.  I didn’t get that my work wasn’t speaking to them, or that I needed to explain it.  Was it empty?  No, it’s full of stuff, it’s just hard to explain, especially without knowing the jargon, without knowing myself very well, without much confidence, and with 3 professors staring at you blankly, waiting, arms crossed, laser beams shooting out of their eyes.  Thank god that’s over.  And since I’ve been out of art school I have seen very few laser beam eyes, but I do avoid them.  I try only to see people who like my art, and so far those are the only ones who have found me and showed up at my openings.  Phewf.

$250 at Mille Fiori Spa

Mom has fond memories of this night… it was a wallpaper party gone wild, chinese food and good times were had by all.  Brent Purdy and Don Kemp are pictured here, lounging and eating.

I painted this on some old paneling Adam salvaged from a trailer he is renovating and flipping with his bro.   I am still working out the logistics of using this material since it has a finish on it already.  I did paint directly onto the board without sanding in some places… where I did that I put a coat of polyurethane to stop the paint from coming off.  I may have to sand it completely next time, then re-finish the areas I want to leave darker.  But tish tosh, who cares, well maybe someone wanted to know…

]]> http://www.wiggylove.com/2010/05/chinese-wallpaper/feed/ 2 http://www.wiggylove.com/2010/05/wall-flower/ http://www.wiggylove.com/2010/05/wall-flower/#comments Mon, 24 May 2010 18:41:42 +0000 Leslie http://www.wiggylove.com/?p=718 Wall Flower: Wallpaper, acrylic and gold paint on wood.

My dear Karen Messer was the second winner of the Mother’s Day contest I had.  I took my time, saving this one for the show I am having at the Ministry of Casual Living right now.  The opening was awesome, a totally surprise, since I worried no one would show and I would sell nothing.  Not the case at all.  It was a total success thanks to new and old friends.  Ahh, hard part done.  It’s up until the 27th if anyone wants to check it out.

15″ x 20″ Train Travel.

Emily from Bernstein & Gold commissioned this one from me, for herself of her best friend Lisa.

Emily told me she asked her friend first, if it was weird she was going to have a painting done of her, if that was okay… of course she was honoured.

I don’t even ask my best friend for permission, I just go ahead and take liberties.  Us girls LOVE our girlfriends so much, and I have a million pictures of my closest pal. Regan is lucky I haven’t painted any incriminating photos of her, yet ;)

Ahhh the POWER mwah ha ha ha ….

Sarah Ginger Kittens Smith commissioned this painting for her hubby Gord, also my pal, for his surprise be-day party this year.  Grace took the picture and filtered it to be high contrast and clearly, bright and colourful.

Buster, is LOVED immensely by all of the above.   Especially by Gordon.

One time Gordon came by my house.  Outside on the porch, I had stacked a bunch of paintings that made me shudder with annoyance.  They were old projects from art school, I wanted to throw out.  Gord took them all.  I was touched.  Ever since then I have wanted to give him something a little more meaningful and that doesn’t make me cringe.  I hope this will be a favorite of his for a long time.

Cute Little Sailorette, 15 5/8″ x 22 3/8″

For a bit of mother’s day appreciation, I had a contest on Facebook to win a painting of your mom.  It was ridiculously hard to chose a picture!  There were so many good ones,  I chose 2;  this one, and a picture yet to be painted for my friend Karen.

Shelly’s mom passed away recently, so this painting is extra special.

My love to all your mom’s out there.