Soon, We Will All Be Real...

I imagine this to be the last page of a children's book. Or the second to the last page. This is where the Man-Fairy turns Pup-Pup and White Monkey into being real "lovies". The last page would have them frolicking in a field of clover with a shy fawn and friendly but grumbly badger.

A couple of months ago I donated a gift certificate for this blog to my five year old son's elementary school fundraiser. Just last week I heard back from Ellie Feldman who was the lucky one who won it. (She probably thought she was bidding on the spa basket).
Ellie wanted a painting of her two sons', Ethan and Toby's, "lovies". She provided me with plenty of pictures and I took it from there. I painted them in front of a blue background, but then decided I needed some kind of context. Something to build a story from is more satisfying. So, I went with the Pinocchio-Velveteen Rabbit toys longing to be real scenario. There is a sweet sadness to this that still, as an adult, gets to me.

Beth drew her own suggestion for this painting. As you can see, her idea was to have the "lovies" patiently waiting for a table at the Red Lobster. While I loved this idea, and considered it for a little while, it seemed just too random. I could imagine the Feldman Family's confused looks as they opened the envelope. But who knows, maybe the Red Lobster is special for them. I doubt it (though it is a fine establishment).

On a similar topic, someone was kind enough to start a fan page on Facebook for this blog. Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to post some of the preliminary drawings that I (and Beth) have done for these paintings on it. Some I actually think are more interesting than the paintings and some display moments of really bad judgement on my part. I'll let you decide which is which. Check it out...you don't want to miss that...right???
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Panda-Licking-on-a-Lightbulb-A-Paint-on-Demand-Blog/82222555038?ref=ts

Thank You, Feldman Family, for supporting the school and giving me an excuse to paint "lovies"!