Custom Toy Portrait » Toy Portrait Series

Watercolor Trio

Custom Toy Portrait — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:35:27 +0000

8″x10″ watercolor on paper, 2007. Here’s a watercolor sketch from a few years ago of three objects that may be found in my living room. The giraffe is a tea-light holder from Pier One, the chick is a bubble container/wand thing, and the ceramic hamster actually represented my husband atop our wedding cake. As you can (barely) see in this photo of a photo at left, our cake’s “bride” was a ceramic duck with a silver star on her head. Of course!

Tiger and Giraffe

Custom Toy Portrait — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 04:01:59 +0000

8″x10″ acrylic, 2010. Well, while I’m waiting for my slow summer to give way to some brisk portrait commission action as folks look toward the holidays (I HOPE!), here is a little study of two classic toys. I found the tiger, along with many other whimsical velveteen animals, for a dollar each at my local Ocean State Job Lot. They are reproductions of 1950’s Dakin Dream Pets, which were originally used as packing material for toy trains! The giraffe was a yard sale find. It’s from Little Tikes, I’m guessing from the 90’s. It served for many years as the “pilot” of my husband’s car, perched on the dashboard with its head smooshed under the windshield. It became a bit deformed from all the sun, and was ultimately surrendered to our toddler.

Very Fat Lion

Custom Toy Portrait — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:03:46 +0000

5″x5″ acrylic, 2010. I don’t actually buy that many stuffed animals, but every once in awhile a truly special beast will make its presence known to me and I just have to have it. Such was the case last week as my husband, daughter and I wandered around our local Job Lot in search of some random item which was evidently not random enough to be carried by Job Lot. This absurdly proportioned lion made us all burst out laughing. There was no discussion or debate — the fat lion just stepped on into the shopping cart like he had been waiting for a bus.

Mademoiselle Louise

Custom Toy Portrait — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:57:35 +0000

8″x10″ acrylic, 2010. I LOVE this crazy, knit chicken! It is part of the L’atitude Enfant series of stuffed animals, as are our other knit friends Don Gato and this cow. I bought it at Target for Sonja when I was about two minutes pregnant, having been waiting for an excuse. But Sonja is frustratingly diplomatic with her toys, and seems to select a new one or two each day to dote upon. She is working methodicly through our collection and has yet to show much interest in poor Louise. When Sonja was a newborn I would often waggle the chicken in front of her face, babbling in high-pitched french — maybe Louise has already had her moment in the sun.

Hoo Hoo

Custom Toy Portrait — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:03:40 +0000

5″x7″ oil, 2005. Our Sonja, who is almost two, is under the impression that owls and penguins are the same animal. She’s not as familiar with real owls and penguins as she is the abstract variations of illustration, animation, and toy design, so I guess it’s understandable. This little owl is one of a the elite group of toys who live in Sonja’s crib. She is extra interested in him right now because she likes Little Bear (the show and the books) and is convinced that Little Bear’s friend Owl can fly to the moon.

Knuffles

Custom Toy Portrait — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:45:12 +0000

8″x10″ oil, 2004. Here is a “early” toy portrait that I painted several years ago of my sister’s childhood favorite, Knuffles. He was about 6″ high, I believe made by Gund, and pretty ambiguous about his species. There were many heated family discussions regarding what sort of animal he was… a cow? Hamster? Guinea pig? A nutria, even? His amorphous, squishy body made him a go-to living room battle projectile whenever the need for one arose.

Bunny Ball

Custom Toy Portrait — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:12:53 +0000

4″x5″ acrylic, 2009. This is a tiny painting of my husband’s childhood stuffed bunny. The bunny was unearthed a couple of months ago at his parents’ house and shown to me with a sense of extreme reverence. When I asked what the story with it was, there was a lot of shrugging and looking at one another. “It’s a bunny, and it’s a…ball,” the family finally agreed. I love that there really isn’t any more say about it than what is evident in its serious wear and tear.

The Work Lion

Custom Toy Portrait — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:37:31 +0000

8″x10″ acrylic, 2009. Certain people tend to anthropomorphize stuffed animals more than others, and those people are sometimes adults — adults who might happen to be married to me. And other people with the same tendencies might happen to be employed by my husband. And so a bizarro transaction took place involving this lion. Said employee had two identical lions. One was at home, and the other she kept at work because if they were together they “might fight.” Greg was concerned that some harm would come to the “work lion” if left there, and so he convinced the lion’s owner that he would give it a good life in the care of our Sonja. So far the poor lion has been working long hours modeling in my studio, but I think now I will set it free in the wilds of the nursery.

Bowling Pin Pig

Custom Toy Portrait — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:07:37 +0000

8″x10″ acrylic, 2009. This pig is from our AMERICAN baby bowling set, the one with recognizable animals. I was discussing the wackiness of our Australian set with my sister today, and she figured that it was constructed by Indonesian child sweat-shops working with whatever random fabrics were available (hence red and blue monkey-type animal, and something that might be a blue rhino). Or, we’re boring.

Totoro and Hamtaro, Take 3

Custom Toy Portrait — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:33:25 +0000

8″x10″ acrylic, 2009. These two seem to have that certain something — those great big, round, maniacal eyes seem to say, “take us home so we can stare at you from that presently blank spot on your wall!” I have sold two variations on this theme this year already, so I thought I would make another one for an upcoming show. I’m not sure if their paths would actually cross in their bizarro Japanese pop culture worlds, but I’d like to think so,