Custom Toy Portrait » elephant

Bunny, Bunny, Quack Quack, and Mr. Elephant

Custom Toy Portrait — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:59:16 +0000

11″x14″ acrylic, 2010. Sharon has 3 children with four favorite toys between them. There are two “Bunnies,” the largest belonging to five-year-old Luke. The second “Bunny” and “Quack Quack” are three-year-old Lilah’s blanket animals. “Mr. Elephant” belongs to 8-month-old Daniel. Sharon commissioned this portrait of the entire group to hang in her own bedroom! I love this idea — it’s like a sort of symbolic, metaphorical portrait of her children.

Ellie

Custom Toy Portrait — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:27:16 +0000

5″x7″ acrylic, 2010. A tiny portrait commissioned by Kara for her nephew Nici — Ellie T. Smith was bought by his grandmother at a Carter’s outlet when Nici was one, and is being immortalized in paint because she is already showing a lifetime of wear after only two years. Nici’s mother suggests that Ellie may embody some yin to the yang in Nici’s personality: she notes that one of her favorite photos of her is of Nici and his friend wearing baseball hats, and Nici is carrying Ellie. “I think she represents his sensitive side,” she writes. Kara made the poignant observation that, as Nici grows older and she looks back on his childhood, she will always think of Ellie. I love that this portrait has significance for the grownups too!

Baby Bowling/Elephant

Custom Toy Portrait — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:13:46 +0000

Baby Bowling/Elephant 10×12 acrylic on canvas 2009

My daughter Sonja was given two different sets of “baby bowling,” each of which consist of limbless stuffed animals and a soft ball. One of the sets contains farm animals, and the other, bought by my sister while in Australia, is mostly jungle animals plus some “mystery” creatures, rendered unidentifiable by their creative coloring and their…Australian-ness, I suppose. Purple wombat? Not sure. But it’s fun setting up a virtual army of crazy un-armed (ha ha) animals to be mown down by a merauding toddler. Here are a few of them, clearly coveting the four apendages of a small felt elephant.