Tag: blanket

Twin Hippos and a Quilt

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2010. You might think that these hippos are identical, but four-year-old Charlotte can tell them apart — it’s “something about their smiles,” she says. Charlotte also has twin two-year-old sisters, and so having two alike-but-distinct hippos seemed important to her, Charlotte’s grandmother Pat tells me. The quilt was handmade by Charlotte’s other grandmother. I’ve painted several portraits of late that include multiples (or one representative of multiples) of the same toy which are all in circulation at once — very interesting! Pat will give this portrait to Charlotte for Christmas.

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Mousey and Lovey

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2010. Oh, the irony… for years I wanted to paint nothing but the human face close-up, because it frustrated me to have to deal with lots of clothing or surrounding space. And now, here I am completely immersed in painting fabric — an loving it! The two subjects of this portrait were super exciting and challenging with their stripeyness and strongly-lit textures. Also, this painting was a last-minute Christmas order which had to finish within three days! The painting is a gift for one-year-old Leah from her mother Denise, who bought Mousey while pregnant as a clever way to let her husband know they would be having a girl. Leah gravitates toward a special spot with a snap and a tag on the blanket, Lovey, who “revolutionized sleep in our house,” says Denise.

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Emilia’s Bunny

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″ acrylic, 2011. Colleen found me via a local Etsy search, and since she lives mere blocks from me, I had the pleasure of meeting this bunny/blanket in person! Not wanting to separate it from 2-year-old Emilia for any significant length of time, Colleen and I worked together to take a nice photo for me to use. The family does have a “back-up” bunny which stays at Emilia’s daycare, but I suspect that there is no substitute for the home bunny. In this portrait, the bunny is arranged on top of a green blanket that is a another favorite of Emilia’s.

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Jane’s Ducky

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″acrylic, 2010. Jane, who will turn three in January, LOVES ducks. In fact, she loves anything yellow just by association. She was a duck for Halloween this year (really a chick costume, but close enough!) She was given this duck/blanket when she was four months old and the two have since been inseparable. The portrait will be a gift for Jane’s third birthday from her mother, Virginia. My Sonja, also almost three, currently collects rubber duckies of all sorts in a tattered paper gift bag, and she enjoyed watching this painting take shape in my studio! See a gallery of my other blanket-related portraits here.

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Francis, Francis, and Nose

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2010. I love this: The two rabbits, each named Francis, function as a unit known as the “Franci.” The flat blanket animal of ambiguous species (giraffe?) has always been referred to simple as “Nose.” Megan, who will give this painting to her nephew Carter, says that there was originally only one Francis. Carter’s mother bought the second bunny as backup, and Carter found it by mistake. From that point on the Franci have been equally loved.

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Day and Night Dolly

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2010. This incarnation of the ubiquitous blanket-with-a-head stuffed toy is extra fabulous: It’s reversible, having both a sunny, wide-eyed “day” side as well as this blue side, sprinkled with crecent moons. Dylan, 2 1/2, lately prefers the “night” side. He can nearly always be found with “Dolly” tucked under his arm — on the soccer field, on a playground slide, in a grocery cart, and, of course, in bed. Dylan’s mother Joy tells me that Dolly was originally a gift for her first child, but Dylan, her fourth, was the one who truly came to love it. For this portrait, I was sure to include Dolly’s satin skirt, which is Dylan’s favorite part.

Clare’s Dolly

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″ acrylic, 2010. This Precious Moments doll/blanket combo was once much pinker and puffier, and it is perhaps now a bit grayer and more frayed than you see here in this tiny painting. I was sent “before and after” photos, and after some discussion of strategy, it was decided that the portrait would be of the Dolly in her current loved state but with a bit of the blush restored. This portrait was commissioned by Tina as a gift for her daughter Clare for Christmas!

Roar, Monkey, and Blankie

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″ acrylic, 2010. I can’t believe that this is the first sock monkey to come my way for a toy portrait! I hope there will be more! Monkey, Roar, and Blankie all belong to Sephanie’s son Graham, and this little painting is a gift for his upcoming birthday. Apparently there is no heirarchy among them, as Graham carries all three around the house all day and into bed each night. The blankie has its own voice, a bubbly, loopy, wordless language, and also a special spot on it which Graham insists is its “mouth.” What an imaginative kid!

Lilly and Froggy

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

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!