The Teds are Exhibit-Ted

Its been a great day at the Richmond Hill Studio Tour & Art Sale and it was so lovely to see so many smiling faces both young and old. Caffeinate-Ted sold and My Teds are really enjoying their moment of fame. I thought you might enjoy looking a a couple photos of them.

 Here is Caffeinate-Ted with the real Ted star sitting on the table below (bottom right)

There's just no telling what my Teds are going to get up to next! This one is sitting on top of Distort-Ted. He likes this painting best as he is the star!
 

As darkness falls it was time to close the exhibition for the evening but we will be back in the morning.

 

  Ona

Distort-Ted

I don't know if you all do the same but when I'm setting up a still life I tend to 'live with it' for a day or two, changing things until I'm happy with it... well I came back to it one time and found that my Ted's who live in my studio had 'found' my set up :)

The distortion in the glass certainly provided amusement for these curious Ted's. Hope it does for you too.

                                                   Transparent Watercolour13.5 by 25 inches

Congratulations to Mary for guessing the correct number of Ted's in the painting. A card will be on it's way to you tomorrow.

 Ona

Knit-Ted and Knot-Ted

Hope you enjoy the antics of my two latest Teds, Knit-Ted and Knot-ted who met today on Grandma's parlour table.

Knit-ted was waiting patiently in the warm sunshine for Grandma to return and sew up his foot but while he was sat there his new found friend Knot-ted, while trying to get to the jammy biscuit, became tangled in the trail of wool that was still joined to Knit-Ted's foot!  Try as this small furry Ted might to untangle himself each movement he made just made matters worse for his friend the knitted bear.

 I hope Grandma will return soon and rescue both Teds!

Thank you Christelle and Ruth for the teddy bears that inspired this painting.

Ona

Craf-Ted with Love

This scene takes you back to the days when toys were meant to last, when they endured generations of love and play. They were made out of love and with such skill. 

The child's grandfather is patiently making a Teddy for his grandson. The child looks on with awe and wonder. He can almost imagine his Ted is alive. The small wooden toy watches Grandfather finish his arm.... He is a toy crafted with love

 'I was made to love you
 I was made to find you
I was made just for you
Made to adore you
I was made to love
And be loved by you.
You were here before me
You were waiting on me
And you said you'd keep me
Never would you leave me I was made to love
and be loved by you.'  

Lyrics from 'Made to Love' by Toby Mac

Its painted on a full sheet of Arches 140lb cold press paper.

Ona

Impersona-Ted

 Bears hold a special part in the childhood memories of so many.

The world of the teddy bear is an innocent one, a world that gives delight and hurts not, a world that appeals to all generations and all nationalities.  Gyles Brandreth

  

The Teddy Bear is a symbol that all is right with the world if one simply believes.

 This was a fun painting to do. I wanted it to be filled with a sense of light, warmth and homeliness as well as convey a sense of innocent joy....something which would re-kindle those childhood memories of wanting to be part of that special 'bear family' that so many of us dreamed of as a child.

I hope you have all enjoyed entering into the lives of the bears with the competition too. I know I have enjoyed reading your ideas for captions. Picking a winner has been so hard that in the end I have decided on joint winners :) So Congratulations to Shirely Scoble and Verena Murvin for your wonderful Captions. A teddy print will be sent to you both very soon!

Ona

Tessella-Ted

 I couldn't resist playing with this idea. The hardest part was definitely working out how I could tessellate Teddies! This painting is a smallish one at 22 by 13 inches.

I wanted a fun feel  so based the colour palette for this painting on the compliments blue/orange and purple/yellow.

I was thinking about all those times that children are asked to create tessellating patterns at school as I painted this! WOWWW its hard to do! 

Bear is busy creating this masterpiece when little Ted decides she is just the right size to become a Tessella-Ted :)

Ona

Interes-Ted

Positioned in his favourite reading spot, this small child is engrossed in his favourite book about bears. His faithful companion, Ted, is also carefully seated beside him, raised up on cushions so he too can see the story about his friends the bears. There is nothing quite like sharing your favourite story with your favourite bear.

What is the title of this painting ' Interes-Ted' referring to though? Is it referring to the child who is so obviously interested in his book about Teddy bears, or is it referring to his well loved friend Ted? Maybe Ted is even raising his arm to ask a question about his furry friends in the book or is he just leaning on the cushion as he listens... I guess we will never know :)

Encouraging a love of reading in children is one of the greatest gifts, apart from your love, that you can give to a child. Not only does it open up a world of information and knowledge to them but it can also help develop their imaginations and encourage more creativity. Sharing a book can be a lot of fun too.

Ona

Comfor-Ted

When you are small there is no feeling more comforting and consoling than knowing you are in the arms of someone who loves you.

 "Mothers bring the arms of comfort to an insecure child in a world of uncertainty" Reed Markham

It was this idea that was my inspiration for this painting. I still have to fix and varnish it, but the painting itself is now finished. I'm planning to exhibit it in our  local Watercolour Society's exhibition which will take place the week before Mother's day. I hope it will be a popular one :)

 Ona

Comfor-Ted WIP 2

Baby Ted is now finished and Mommy Ted is slowly appearing as I paint the fur texture and then glaze over.

I thought you would like to see a close up of the baby teddy. Cute isn't he :) You can get a better feel for the smooth graduations of colour of the background in the close up too.

Lots of fur still left to do on Mother Ted.

Ona

Playing with the English Language

Sorry I have been so long posting this update. Sometimes it takes a while to get from that initial idea to something tangible that I can actually show you. The idea that I have been developing is based on a play on words...  ending in Ted. Why Ted?... short for teddy of course :)

 I am doing this painting as a gallery wrapped watercolour. I have just finished the stretching process so its all ready to paint. I have taken a little longer than normal for this one because I have videod the whole wrapping process.

We have a local watercolour show coming up at the beginning of May (the week leading up to Mothers day) and I wanted to create a painting that captured the essance of what mothers were about but at the same time be more general too. So I've used the word comforted for inspiration.

 

I wanted to keep the composition really simple and plan to use the background and lighting to really enhance that warm cuddly feeling. I deliberately placed the 'mother' facing away because, to me,  it seems this way  to focus more on the feeling/ action. 

Ona