8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. This big, floppy, orange Circo giraffe with wide-wale corduroy feet has all his adventures ahead of him! The giraffe and his portrait will be baby shower gifts for Kris’ longtime friend Stephanie. I love portraits of worn, much-loved toys, but it’s great to capture one when it’s crisp and new and eager for the embrace that will shape its form and its future!
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9″x12″ acrylic, 2011. It’s so much fun to paint toys for grown folks like Mary’s two sons, who are 21 and 23. The boys came of age in the high Nickelodeon era, and so, naturally, their favorite toys were both cute and slightly disturbing. Mary ordered portraits of each as Christmas presents for them, and was kind enough to mail me the actual toys rather than photos. The first of the two paintings depicts a stuffed CatDog, who comes equipped with a ratchet-y, bendable back which renders him slightly poseable. His cheery expression(s) made him very pleasant to spend time with and I’ll miss having him around!
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8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. When fifteen-year-old Sophia was a baby, these lambs were named after Linda, the woman who assisted the family with Sophia’s adoption from China. After years of travel and affection, they are now devoid of their polka-dots, stripes, and, well, their faces! The two toys, which currently look like this: 
were initially intended to be rotated to slow wear-and-tear. In my “research” I have found that, in most cases, a child’s “back-up” lovey eventually becomes absorbed into daily use along with the primary toy. Such is the case with Linnie the Lamb and her twin, ultimately known as “Magic Marker Linnie” and “Other Linnie.” In this portrait, Linnie rests upon Sophia’s red fleece blanket, which was also a childhood favorite.
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5×7 acrylic, 2011. Holy moly, this portrait packed a lot of textural challenges into one tiny painting! Check out this furry white bunny with a soft blue blanket/body trimmed with satin reclining against a crocheted, rainbow-patterned blanket. This is one of two portraits which will be Christmas gifts for Katie’s two small sons, and both feature the winning combination of blanket-heads and blankets!
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More info about prints here.
5″x7″ acrylic, 2011. I really enjoy an opportunity to paint a new version of a stuffed toy I have encountered in the past. This classic Winnie-the-Pooh blanket-head sports a yellow blanket, and last year I had the pleasure of painting a similar Pooh whose blanket was pink. In this second of two portraits commissioned by Katie for her sons, Pooh rests against a blue blanket which is also a special favorite. This Pooh represents my favorite variation on the blanket-head theme, in that it appears to hold the blanket in its arms rather than having a blanket as a sort of totally limbless body! Adorable side-note: Katie’s son chose this pose for Pooh because it looked most like “her.”
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9″x12″ acrylic, 2011. At long last, a Lego portrait! This “Lego guy” (that’s the official name for them, right?) is the Star Wars character Boba Fett, Darth Vader’s hired bounty hunter. The toy belongs to 10-year-old Oscar, who shares his affection for all things Lego and Star Wars with his mother Katya. Oscar loves to build Star Wars Lego kits, but he also likes to break them down and make his own creations. Katya will give this painting to Oscar for Christmas. My husband, who has filled a room upstairs in our house with his own Star Wars Lego structures, lobbied passionately for me to paint the Slave 1 spaceship into the background, but was unwilling to cough up the additional fee.
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8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. Our nephews are absolutely mad for things that go! I painted a wooden train for choo-choo crazy Sean when he was two. Today is Sean’s little brother Kevin’s second birthday, and since he loves any and all vehicles, I thought I’d paint my favorite vintage Fisher-Price toy bus for him. At his party tonight many toes were run over by new trucks, buses, and remote-control cars!
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8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. I was beyond excited when Bethenny Frankel’s very nice assistant contacted me! Bethenny, the hilarious entrepreneur and former Real Housewife of New York City, asked me to paint her daughter Bryn’s pink stuffed elephant. As far as I can tell from the Bravo show “Bethenny Ever After,” adorable one-year-old Bryn has an enviably placid and easygoing demeanor. And it’s a good thing, because she has one busy mama! I hope that this portrait of a beloved toy in a sunlit chair adds to the atmosphere of calm in Bryn’s nursery.
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8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. Allisyn’s son Oliver has several VIP toys, three of which are honored in this portrait. This is one of two portraits which will be gifts for Oliver’s upcoming first birthday. I was thrilled to paint my first Curious George! All three of the toys in this painting keep Oliver company in his crib each night, and he has extended conversations with George every morning. In addition to the two paintings for her son, Allisyn also ordered a painting earlier this year for of her friend’s baby’s knit, stuffed monster.
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5″x7″ acrylic, 2011. Oliver has many close friends, but this elephant blanket is his main squeeze. It’s so special that it warrants its own separate portrait, while the rest of Oliver’s adorable cribmates share another canvas entirely. Oliver’s mother Allisyn commissioned both portraits for his upcoming first birthday. Working on this piece reminded me so much of the portrait I made of Heather Armstrong’s daughter’s lovey, which was another sweet elephant blanket-head personalized with the child’s embroidered name.
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