nice can.

For Valentine's day this year, just tell her what she really wants to hear, "you've got a nice can."  

Love ain't so hard.  #loveexpert #sweetdumpah

4"x4" canvas painting.  Email me for one of your very own! 

Bilingual Animal Painting for Escuela Montessori

Custom Artwork with a Paisley Print

 These paisley paintings were done for a little lady's room inspired by the lampshade her Mom bought  at PBK from the Tera Paisley Collection.

All of the designs mimic the style of the fabric but are completely original to match the overall color-scheme of bright pinks, purples, greens and blues in her room.

Because there is no discernible top or bottom, left or right, they can be hung in any order and any direction.  They can be hung separately, one on each wall, in a row, in a grid, in a circle, on the ceiling...whatever her little heart desires.  

This one kind of looks like some sort of weird amoeba.  I'm ok with that. 

Contact me if you'd like some custom paintings for your own little one.  Thanks for stopping by!

Sophie's Safari

24"x36" wall size custom canvas painting for Sophie.

Including her name, date-of-birth and her favorite little Caterpillar.

I'm always accepting commissions for custom artwork and quotes are always free.

CONTACT ME if you have any questions or want a painting of your own!

Owls for a Fish

A trio of owls for baby Fish's* nursery in Cambridge.  

*Fish is short for baby's last name: Fischer.

Contact me if you'd like some of your own.

Is This Appropriate?

Custom "Is This Appropriate?" speech bubble for when you're just

not sure if your Mom would approve of what you're doing.    

Happy Critters Custom Playground Painting

This custom 24"x36" painting was made just for Vivian who turned 2 last weekend to bring more color to her "not too pinky-girly" nursery and came to me my favorite way, through word of mouth advertising.




Included in the painting are Vivan's favorite stuffed animals, herself and of course, a girl's best friend, her dog, Milo.   

Vivan wasn't home to see the painting in person when I dropped it off but luckily her Mom shot me this adorable play-by-play of when she first saw it:

"I wanted to let you know about Vivian's reaction when she first saw your painting.  She saw it as soon as she walked into her room yesterday afternoon, and did a total double-take.  Then she pointed at Dolly in the picture and said her name, and went to grab the actual Dolly from her toy bin so she could hold her just like she is in the picture.  Then she pointed at each of her "friends" in the picture and named them, and also pointed out Milo.  I asked her if she liked the picture, and she said, "Yesssss!""


Reactions like that make this job even sweeter, if that's possible.

And, as if that weren't enough, piggy-backed on top of all that sweetness was this painting also done for Vivian commissioned by the original word-of-mouth advertiser, the customer I painted Ryan's Safari for.
Little V is a second generation Chinese-American, this is her birth animal, the tiger and her name written in Chinese characters.  It was painted to coordinate-with but not necessarily match the playground painting in order to keep the room from looking too "theme-y" (which is definitely a word) and topped off with a distressed white frame.

Thanks for stopping by and please don't hesitate to contact me with questions if you'd like your own custom nursery artwork!  


...don't be a stranger, ya'hear?

Safari Painting for Baby Ryan

This huge 36" x 24" painting was done for Ryan whose Mom wanted a bright, colorful, happy Safari scene.  Ryan's walls are painted a neutral color so the sides of this painting were done in alternating dark and light green stripes to really make it stand off the wall.  The happy characters are intentionally kept very simple to keep the painting from being overwhelming to baby.  

Ryan's date-of-birth was snuck into the painting on a leaf in the zebra's mouth and Ryan's loving Mother is represented by the giraffe who's giving her son's name a good snuggle.  

From rough sketch to final product:

 This painting was designed to grow with Baby Ryan- being young enough to be appropriate for a nursery and also bright enough to be able to transition easily into a toddler's room.  Email me if you'd like a painting made for your little one or if you have questions about price, sizing or anything else.  All questions are welcome.   

Before & After: the Painting Process

Makeover shows, be them human or residential, are a major weakness of mine.  Mostly because I love a good before-and-after picture.  I love seeing a neglected little kitchen in Iowa that hasn't been updated since Reagan was in office be turned into a gormet cookery fit for the White House.  It's so satisfying to see the design come to life and the before-and-after shot at the end is what makes it all come together.

The same is true for paintings.  Whenever I'm asked to do a custom painting I always start with a sketch to make sure the customer and I are on the same page.  Once the drawing is approved, I get 'er painted up and no many how many times I go through the process I still love seeing the before and after shot at the end.    

For instance, you can go from hand-colored sketch to nice looking piece of art (if I do say so myself):

From an idea in a notebook to a wall-sized triptych that is now the highlight of Lil' Dillon's room.  

From a basic scribble to a full-blown stadium.

From outline to outstanding....ya, I just said that.  

Click HERE to see more before-and-afters.  

And feel free to email me if you have an idea for a painting...or if you just want to talk about muffins. 

The Compliment Shop for Valentine's Day!

I've started loading up the Compliment Shop for Valentine's Day.

Let your Valentine know you love them so much that you want to punch them in their adorable face with a compliment from the Compliment Shop. 

More available soon!  check back often!  

E is for Ella

Ella's Mom just re-did her room for her and ordered these letters to complete the transformation.  Her room is now a bright mint green with a coordinating green and pink bedspread and I'm told these letters look great hung on her wall.

Each letter is painted on a big ol' 10"x10" square canvas which means that when it's hung on the wall 2" apart, this piece takes up a full four feet of wall space.  This type of painting is an excellent option for renters who can't paint their walls but are looking for a big piece of artwork for a focal wall.  They take up a lot of space without being too busy.  

As always, special requests like this are welcome and encouraged.  Email me if you have questions or for pricing info.  Makes a great Christmas present!

Thank You for your Outrage.

 

When I'm mad I'm not looking for sympathy, I don't need the sage advice of an elder and I certainly don't want to hear the voice of reason.

 

What I need is for my friends to be outraged at the incredible injustice that I've had to face. I need them to fly off the handle if I've had to wait too long to get coffee. I want a table flipped if my boss wouldn't give me the day off. I want promises of hell fire any time I've been even the tiniest bit inconvenienced.  This is how I will know you're my friend.

 

And then I want to say thank you. Thank you for your outrage.

 

4x4" alternating grey on grey striped speech bubble painting with hot orange outline available on my "other" Etsy shop.

The USS Harlan Richardson Moore

I just finished this painting for a little boy named Harlan to hang in his nursery.  Harlan has a big brother named Lucian, you may remember his monkey pirate ship painting from last year.  

Here are some more pictures of the painting or go check out the slideshow.

The Cuddle Distrobution gauge is set to Mom.

While the Father Figure dial is clearly reading Dad.

(In real life Harlan's dad has a much larger anchor tattooed on his chest.)  

A tender little crab.

Harlan's name is the ship's namesake.

And his date and time of birth are represented in the gauges below:

This worm obviously hasn't been informed about why he's at the end of a fishing line wrapped around a hook.  Ah, sweet ignorance. 

Contact me if you'd like to order a custom painting or for pricing. 

Thanks for looking!

I Love Fabric Bliss!

 Long overdue thank you "card" painting made for Aurora,
head crafty lady and Owner of Fabric Bliss in Denver, CO.

 Not only is Aurora a super duper double crafty lady, business owner, cat lover and hockey playing bad ass, she is also the most thoughtful and talented girl in the Northern 48 States.

 When I approached Aurora with the idea of making bow ties for my wedding in May she not only shared my enthusiasm for the project but took it to a whole 'nother level with multiple emails on color selection and fabric choices and she even sent me an entire Excel spread sheet dedicated to the topic.  Amazing!

And the results were spectacular:

The boys all loved their bow ties, even if they needed youtube to teach them how to tie them, and it added such a special, personal touch to our wedding day.

Thank you SO much Aurora!  Love you!!

ONE HUNDRED SALES!!!

Cue the confetti...I made my hundredth sale on Etsy today!

**allow time for confetti to settle**

I am pleased as punch with myself...not unlike my 100th sale himself, below:

It's fitting that it was my giraffe character to hit this mile 

marker with me as he was the first character I ever 

got paid to paint on a wall in 2008.

Since then, he's shown up on other walls and even added a Missus:



Here's a small run of giraffes I've painted and sold on Etsy in the last 3 years, it's been a long, slow road and I've learned so much.  Hopefully it shows. 

Starting in 2008...

And ending in 2011!

Thank you to everybody who's ever helped me, critiqued me, taught me or bought from me. 

You like me...you really like me!

Please, have a kidney...really.

                                                                                                            *Acrylic paint on 5"x7" mini gallery wrapped canvas.

I painted this 'thank you card' for our good friend and wedding photographer Meredith Mascola. 

After everything she and her assistant photographer/husband did for us before, during and after our recent wedding, just sending a thank you card would have been an insult.  Hopefully this better captures how grateful we are for everything they did for us. 

We love you guys!!!

Multi Cultural Mermaids

 New mermaidens in my shop.    

 Mermaids can be painted to resemble anyone.  Email me with some specifics and we'll get started.

New stuff in my Etsy shop!

Ok, the wedding's over and I'm back from the honeymoon.  Time to get back to work...after I catch up on horribly addicting reality TV shows of course.  I mean, have you even seen Ice Loves Coco?  Amazing.

But I digress...

These little guys were just added to my Etsy shop.  Go check 'em out!

Let me know if you want something special painted.  I love custom orders!

Lace Stencil Tutorial

 As promised, here is the lace stencil tutorial from a painting I made last week.  It's a super easy way to make it look like you really put a lot of time into a project without having to, ya know, really put a lot of time into a project.

Step 1:
To begin this project, gather your supplies:

- I used another painting I had started that was turning out rather lackluster and needed some Umf!  You could also use a blank canvas, some old wood, a frame that needs a makeover, your shoes, anything really.
-tape
- a piece of lace
-some spray paint
-a well ventilated work area

 The rest of this tutorial is after the jump:

Step 2:

Cover lackluster painting with the piece of lace.

Step 3: 
Fold piece around painting like you're wrapping a present.

Tape ends down...this doesn't have to be pretty but make sure the lace is pulled taut so that it stays put.

Step 4:
Look at what a great job you did covering the canvas in lace.

Consider leaving it just how it is cause it's actually kinda cute but then come to your senses and move on to Step 5.

Step 5:
Lightly spray paint the entire thing a delicious shade of Sun Yellow!

It doesn't really have to be yellow.  Just try to pick a color that will stand out against the lackluster painting you didn't really like in the first place.

Allow the paint to dry for at least 30 minutes.

 Step 6:
Take off the lace and Viola!!  Precious!

Step 7:
Finish up whatever painting it is that you're doing.

For me, it meant painting over some of the most detialed parts of the lace design but I knew it was for a good cause so I did it.

I painted my bubble to say, "Is This Appropriate?" which can be explained in a previous post.

And you're done!!  

Now give the painting to your friend and revel in the Ooo's and 

Ahhh's as they're bound to be so impressed with your craftiness!!

Holler!

This Duder (that painting, not the cat) just made his way to 'Rado to hang on the wall at Fabric Bliss!

Close up on polky dotty letters:

More store info and purchasing information to follow.   You look great today!