Your Toy Portrait - Custom Toy Portraits by Jennifer Maher » children

Asa

Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:42:09 +0000

6″x8″ acrylic on cardboard, 2012. This painting, the second of two portrait gifts for Kathleen from Paul, features their three-year-old son Asa. I have experienced Asa’s ardor for trucks and trains first-hand, as Asa and Sonja sometimes get to play together. He imbues them with vigorous, joyful personalities, and expresses his deepest good will by offering his favorites to his playmates to borrow. It was such a pleasure to paint his sweet, striking face, which in person is incredibly animated — Paul tells me that it was nearly impossible to get him to be still long enough for a decent photo! Here are my recent portraits of Sonja and Asa side-by-side:

Sonja With Braids

Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:03:58 +0000

5″x7″ acrylic on cardboard, 2012. Took a break from the toys to paint my favorite little face… Sonja is four, and I think I’m going to try to make yearly portraits of her from now on. Is it evident that I love the Andrew Wyeth Helga paintings? Sonja’s braids definitely conjured them for me!

Oscar’s Bass

Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:40:44 +0000

9″x12″ acrylic, 2012. When he was very small, ten-year-old Oscar fell in love with fishing at his Uncle Howie’s own well-stocked pond. Oscar’s mother Katya tells me that the fish were so plentiful that they practically jumped on the hook, and that thrilling experience guaranteed that Oscar was hooked as well! This fish is a large mouth bass that Oscar caught at the pond about four years ago. This is the first in a series of paintings Katya is having done of Oscar’s very favorite catches. Oscar was also the recipient of my Lego Bobafett portrait!

Max and Jack

Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:24:11 +0000

11″x14″ acrylic, 2010. This painting of Max and his cat is not a toy portrait of course, but is a follow-up to my painting of Max’s sister Lilly and her toy frog. Max’s mother Wendy says that Max does not have a particular favorite toy, but he is very attached to Jack the cat. She says that Max slings Jack over his shoulder and carries him around that way, and Jack doesn’t seem to mind a bit!

Lilly and Froggy

Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 03:27:31 +0000

12″x12″ acrylic, 2010. A fun challenge from Wendy, who commissioned a portrait of her daughter Lilly together with her recently lost favorite stuffed toy! Poor Lilly and Froggy O’Froggy had been inseparable ever since she was born. Froggy is a variation on the very popular blanket/head theme in contemporary stuffed animals, but this is the first one I’ve encountered that consists of a whole animal holding a blanket in his hands — very clever and cute! Very thoughtful of Wendy to immortalize and commemorate Froggy for Lilly in this way… but I hope he turns up!