Category: Toy Portraits

Custom portraiture and paintings of Sonja’s toys

Reclining Dog

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. I painted this pup while on “vacation” with my husband’s family (read: frantically working while temporarily surrounded by babysitters!). It’s a classic Carter’s dog which plays music when its tail is pulled, and he belongs to the son of design blogger Kristen. It’s evident from her gorgeous blog that Kristen has extraordinary taste, and so I was sure to include in my portrait the lovely striped, ruffled pillow against which the dog was set in the photos Kristen provided. On a day too rainy for the beach, we ended up at a Carter’s outlet where I happened upon this very stuffed dog!
It felt bizarre but cathartic to meet him there while being so immersed in the minutae of his features… a bit like running into someone you’ve recently dreamed about or have been stalking on Facebook. What?

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Shaggy Dog

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. This old soul of a stuffed dog has weathered many washings and mendings and even puppy attacks over the years. He has been at Tim’s wife Erin’s side ever since it was given to her by her mother when she was six. “Dog” has accompanied Erin on her travels to swim meets throughout the country, and supported her through appenticitis, mono, and bad days at school. To this day, Tim tells me, Erin would not think of going to bed without Dog! This portrait is a gift from Tim for Erin’s upcoming birthday.

And Erin would love if you put a picture on your website. Erin’s mother bought her this stuffed animal (“dog”) when she was six years-old. She has slept with dog every night since then. Dog has provided Erin with support as she dealt with appendictis, bouts with mono and less-than-great days at school. As Erin grew up, dog followed her to swim meets throughout the northeast and then to new cities across the country (Eugene, Oregon; Tucson, Arizona; Boston). Dog has survived repeated washings and re-sewings, as well as attacks by Erin’s puppy, Gary. And even to this day, Erin wouldn’t think of getting into bed without dog.

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Double Snuffles

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. The worn pink noses on these two Gund Snuffles bears denote an incredible tale of destiny! These bears are the childhood toys of Katie’s sister and her husband, who are expecting a baby in September. Katie tells me that an uncanny thing that the couple has in common is that they both carried their bears around by the nose in their mouths! I wonder at what point in their relationship this was discovered, and did they immediately decide to marry at that moment? This portrait will be a gift to the couple from Katie in celebration of the new baby. Here is another Snuffles portrait I did a couple of years ago… apparently worn noses are par for the course with these bears!

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Stewie

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. A couple of days each week, I pack Sonja and what seems like everything we own into my car and commute 45 minutes north to my parents house. There’s one bag for Sonja’s stuff, one for my running clothes and shoes, a cooler for food and drink, my laptop, my giant purse, and a big bag of art gear. A welcome uptick in business this year has caused me to need to use these visits to cram in as much painting as possible while Sonja enjoys her grandparents. This was fine when it was cold, but now that it is gorgeous and warm, it hurts a little when they run off to go canoeing or swimming. My parents live in Lake Luzerne, NY, which is packed with all manner of Adirondack-y delights, such as this spot:

…where I could be found last summer basking on a rock….

…but this year, I’m mostly here at my parent’s dining-room table while the three of them are off playing.

But this past Friday, I had remembered the kitchen sink but forgotten the correct-sized canvas for the portrait commission I was planning to work on. Frustrated, I turned to the stash of toys that my mom keeps there for Sonja (which deserves an entire post unto itself – stay tuned!) and decided to paint the main bear of the house, Stewie. In keeping with what seems to be trend in my recent work, Stewie reclines on an embroidered pillow. I think that if this happens again, I should probobly go out and enjoy the lake instead… summer is short!

Emmett’s Hippo

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

9″x12″ acrylic, 2011. Simplicity prevails when it comes to this irresistable stuffed hippo. Emmett, now four, was given Hippo as a Christmas gift by his grandmother when he was two. The hippo immediately displaced all the more colorful and seemingly attractive toys in the house in Emmett’s affections. Hippo sleeps with Emmett every night, and has even traveled to Italy with him. Emmett’s mother Andrea tells me that now Emmett’s one-year-old sister adores Hippo too, so toy companies, take note – less is more!

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Collin’s Bear

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. This portrait is the second of two paintings won last year in a blockbuster Design Mom holiday jackpost giveaway. The big winner was Jo, and of her son Collin’s favorite things, she chose his toy ukulele and this wonderful blue bear to be painted. I love that the bear is sporting a rather boyish shirt along with a silky bow at the neck. He’s well rounded! He’s seated next to the same gorgeous avian pillow that appeared in the Ukulele portrait. Jo tells me that the arrival of these portraits might help Collin feel loved and special during the difficult adjustment to a new baby in the family.

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Collin’s Ukulele

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. Here is one of two paintings which were won over a year ago in an amazing giveaway over at Design Mom! The giveaway included a pair of my custom portraits as one part of a huge jackpot of goodies, and Jo was the lucky winner. Jo and I fell in and out of correspondence over the ensuing year. As she pondered which of her son Collin’s toys to choose, Jo did some world traveling and had another baby! At long last, here is Collin’s very special ukulele. I was delighted by the beautiful pillow beside it, not only due to my recent pillow-painting binge, but because of the sweet mama bird/baby birds motif… so appropriate for Jo at this point in her life!

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Grey Bunny

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. I’m really enjoying that many of the recent toys I’ve painted have been propped against pretty pillows! It could be that I am exceedingly sleepy as I write this, but the sweet embroidery and smooth texture of this pillowcase is just fascinating to me. This much-loved bunny, known simply as “Lovey,” belongs to a new high-school graduate. The portrait was commissioned by Debi, a close friend of her mother, and will be a graduation gift.
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Licorice

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. The most important part of this stuffed Blabla “Licorice” dog is not shown in this portrait. it is, of course, his tag! Like many little children, three-year-old Lucas finds the tag on his favorite toy to be the element most deserving of his attention. My own Sonja was also obsessed with tags, which was such an amusing suprise to me, as I had never heard of this phenomenon! Here she is, obsessing over the “best” part of a little pink bear:

Lucas has had this floppy toy, which he simply calls “Dog,” since he was a tiny baby. His mother, Amy, tells me that he loves to suck his fingers while snuggling with him. This portrait will be a gift for Lucas’ upcoming fourth birthday.

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Grey Kitten

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. I love to paint toys that resemble our family’s own favorites, and this grey kitten is so similar to Sonja’s beloved Kitty that I could practically feel her floppy, fuzzy weight in my hands as I worked. This custom portrait was won by Mandana at an auction benefiting a pre-school. She chose her niece Lola’s best-loved stuffed cat as the subject, nestled into Lola’s favorite blanket. I was invited to donate a painting to this auction by Lisa, who cleverly displayed my portrait of her own daughter’s toy at the event as incentive!

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