Friday 31 July 2009

Goodbye Childhood..........


Years ago, I was commissioned to paint a very large fantasy painting to hang in a little girl's bedroom. The instructions were to try and include night and day, horses/unicorns, fairies, parrots, mountains, a castle and to generally let my imagination run wild. It was one of the most enjoyable commissions I have ever had, and took months to complete. It had to be painted while sitting on the living room floor as there just wasn't room for it anywhere else and it certainly was far too big for my easel. It was quite a challenge finding reference pictures to use and making it all tie in as one complete scene - I even painted the little girl and her brother as fairy children.

Last week I was contacted by the mother of this little girl to ask how to best store this painting as it was coming down - the little girl is now at secondary school and I guess the time has come to put aside childish things! Made me feel a little sad....but I thought it was worth another look, especially as all the recent work I have is just potatoes. What a contrast!

8 comments:

Magpie Magic said...

Amazing painting, especially the unicorn. You did a brilliant job combining all the required elements into a scene that works together. Did you use some glitter as well?

natural attrill said...

I love the way you have used all those subtle colours on the snow and unicorn, and the unicorn still stands out so well.
What a difference from potatoes!
Penny.

Gretel said...

I'm sure that one day, when that (now not so little) girl is grown up and starting her own family, she will remember this lovely painting, and it will re-emerge to make another little girl happy. :)

Caroline B said...

Hi Sybille - yes, a smattering of glitter on the snowy bits.
C.

natural attrill said...

you shall have to paint a new picture combining the two subjects....

i can see fairy potatoes catching on... =}

toby.

Unknown said...

wow caroline-must have taken ages to do that!

Laura Sparling said...

Awesomeness! I'm sure that this heirloom piece will once again grace a wall. And maybe one day in the faraway future it'll appear on the Antiques Roadshow as an example of Caroline Bletsis' wonderful art.

Fabulous!

Anonymous said...

Wow, lucky little girl! I hope she has a daughter in her time and that this sees the light of day again.