This original artwork "American Bears" was made with Prismacolor pencils on orange Canson paper.
Here's the story behind "American Bears"....
In the 1990’s
I painted a portrait of a little girl having a tea party with her teddy bears, commissioned by her grandmother. It was such a sweet and beautiful image a giftware company licensed it for reproduction on giftware, and customers loved it. That sparked my interest in portraying teddy bears.
"Kyla's Teaparty" - Prismacolor pencil and watercolor on Canson paper, 24 x 36 inches
(Available as a fine-art print)
That’s when I learned
that a whole community of teddy bear lovers and high-quality collectible teddy bears exists. And most intriguing to me, unique hand-made bears created by talented teddy-bear artists, each with a personality of it’s own.
I connected with
award-winning bear artist Lynn Schaffstall, who let me use photos of her bears as models, and even sent me a beautiful Schaffstall bear named Shannon to photograph in the poses I needed, before returning her to Lynn.
Here's a photo
of Shannon posing with my beloved Doberman Jake (1985 - 1997), pictured at age 11.
I created a series
of teddy bear paintings I call “Teddy Time” inspired by my original “tea time” image. Story Time, Christmastime, A Good Time To Wear A Flowered Hat, and so on. The Bradford Exchange contracted me to create a collector plate series from my “Teddy Time” paintings. That was in the late 1990’s when, sadly, the entire collectible market collapsed, and The Bradford Exchange cancelled their new collector plate projects.
“Springtime”, one of my paintings inspired by Shannon.
Prismacolor pencil, watercolor, and acrylic on Canson paper - 20 x 26 inches.
(Available as a fine-art print)
Fame as a Teddy Bear Portrait Artist was not in the cards. But I had a lot of fun painting teddy bears for a little while!
I still have most of the original paintings from my Teddy Time series. Some are available to collectors.
CONTACT ME if interested.
