It was the official unveiling of my painting
yesterday evening to celebrate The Town of Richmond Hill’s first
Environment Strategy, 'Greening the Hill: Our Community, Our Future'.
Here are some photos for you with Mayor Dave Barrow, Terry Ricketts the Director of the Environment Services Department and members of Council
You can also see a photo of me with the Town of Richmond Hill's Environment Services Department that commissioned me to create the painting.
The
painting will be used as the cover art for the document and the original
will become part of the Towns permenant art collection.
It has been so enjoyable bringing the first of these two old Teds to life in the painting. He is full of so much love and knows so many stories.
The worn fur on his face, the hand sewn eyes and nose and the knitted areas on the rest of his body to me all tell a story of the cuddles he has received and the places he has been with Linda. He has travelled well being adopted in Ireland and then travelling over to Canada with Linda when she was small. He also had a trip back again to visit family. I would love to be able to hear his thoughts as he looks at the old photo.
Do you remember when I showed you a photo of two old Teds and a few other objects a few weeks ago? Click on the link if you want to see the photo again.
To quickly recap, in November of last year I agreed to help raise money for The
Sunshine Foundation of Canada. There
was a local TV auction and the person with the highest bid
won the opportunity to work with me in developing my next
Ted painting. My lucky winner Helen chose to base the idea for the painting on her and her twin sisters two old Teds who have been with them since they were both two years old. She also loaned me an old photo of the two of them as children and a few other sentimental objects to encorporate into the painting. As I carefully unpacked the Teds, the old photograph and the other objects the idea of the two Teds recollecting a very special moment in their life when they were first adopted came to me.
I wanted create a background that was relatively plain but at the same time enhance the soft feminine feel that I want the painting to have so I chose to suggest a stitched quilt type texture.
The old framed photograph was a delight to paint. At about 3 by just over 6 inches it's almost a true miniature painting within the larger painting. I adapted the old reference photo slightly and added in Helen and Linda's two Teds as youngsters capturing that moment when they had just been given by their uncle in Ireland. Click on the photo to see the painting so far a little larger. I will be working on Linda's Ted next (the one behind the photograph).
I also want to share with you a fun e card that I made while waiting for the successive glazes of paint to dry on the background. I hope it makes you smile.
I am honoured to have a painting selected to be in this popular series of North Light books again this year. Splash 16, which will be published sometime in 2015, will be all about textures so I will have lots to write about with this painting. It was such a fun to create. I will never forget my poor husbands face when I asked him to put his camera inches away from my Ted while I drizzled maple syrup all over him. He was so afraid I was going to miss the bear and catch his camera instead. His expression was a picture!
I have created this short promotional video to share with potential clients who might be interested in getting a portrait painted or drawn of themselves, a family member or a pet. I hope you will enjoy it too though.
I was really pleased to get a letter in the mail yesterday to say that both 'Distort-Ted' and 'Rhythm 'n' Blues' have been juried into the Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society Exhibition. The juror for this exhibition is John Salminen
You will be able to see the exhibition from May 9- June 6, 2014 at:
Artists Group Gallery
One Linwood Ave.
Buffalo, NY 14209
716-885-2251
The Gallery Hours are : Tues - Fri: 11 am - 5 pm and Sat: 11 am - 3 pm
I have just finished the painting that will be used for the wrap around cover of a publication.
Now I get to hand over all the hard work to my husband who has the job of photographing it and producing the colour matched digital file to be sent to the publishers for printing.
Thank you for all your e mails and messages as I have been working on this project. It was so lovely to be chosen to capture elements of where I live in a piece of artwork and I am glad you have all enjoyed watching it develop over the last few weeks.
I'm progressing well with the bookcover commission and now just have the people left to paint.
I will post a photo of it once I am finished.
I also wanted to share with you a couple photos that James took yesterday evening of our reception at the Skylight Gallery. Its a beautiful venue and James managed to takes these photos early in the evening before it and we got busy so you could see the exhibition in context.
The exhibition will be open each weekday except Good Friday from 8am-5pm until April 29th so please visit if you haven't already done so and you live close enough.
I've been switching between two different areas over the last few days. As both are on opposite sides of the painting it allows me to work on one while I wait for a glaze to dry in the other area...the joy of a large painting. I still have a lot of work to do on the front cover section but the back cover section (the left hand side of the painting) is beginning to take shape, just the rest of the bus, all the tiny people to paint both of which will give my miniature brushes plenty of exercise.
I hung the exhibition this morning at the Skylight Gallery in Aurora. My section of the exhibition comprises of 12 pieces, all of which have eyes or what we see as their main focus, hence the name 'Windows into the Soul'. Each painting or drawing though is also a window into my soul as the artist and into the viewer's soul as they look at the painting or drawing so I guess the title applies to this too. I took this quick photo this morning so those of you that are too far away to visit can see it too, albeit virtually.
I hope that those of
you that are local can pop in and see the exhibition over the next 4
weeks. You are also welcome to come to the Artists reception on friday evening 7-9pm. (Use the 3rd floor entrance at the back of the building) I would love to see you.
