Small Spaces: A Family Portrait
We have a five-metre blank wall in our living room which we had left empty for the longest time. Meyer suggested a huge painting but we haven't came across anything we liked yet. To wallpaper it would make #mmlittle家 look too busy. A tapestry maybe? Oohhh but all the dust. Then we started filling the wall with Faye's paintings. It gave the home character but as we add on new canvases every fortnight, it looked messier and messier. We took everything down and re-painted the wall white again.
It's empty again.
Empty seems fine and empty is clean. Maybe a little too clean.
When Priscilla of @styledbypt popped by for a visit before she left for New Zealand, she agreed it was a really plain. Five metres of white wall can be quite bare!
There is hardly any element of Home without photographs of our family. But you see, my tastes evolved through the years and I find blowing up a family portrait taken at studio or putting up many framed photographs of us on the wall rather tacky.
I had an idea in mind of a rather different kind of Family Portrait i.e. individual portraits of each family member hung side by side to make a statement. However, they have to be captured in portraiture style and in monochrome. I know exactly the photographer to hire. However, Meyer couldn't see the art in it though and found it looking rather creepy, "Mmm don't you think they will look like funeral pictures?" Haiyo... no taste my husband *haha* But I had to respect him. It's his home too and he loves colours.
"Then, what do you think if we got our individual portraits painted?" I asked him one day. He was receptive of the idea! This home is graced by many artists. Our wallpapers are all original artworks of individual artists from all over the world - Patricia Braune from Australia and many South African artists namely Daleen Roodt, Lin Barrie, Donna Solovei and Nina and Michelle van Reenen. We seem to be attracted to South African creatives. Oh my! I just realise they are all female artists!
We also have paintings of local watercolour botanical artist, Sarah Lim and French artist Thierry Bisch in our living and dining room too. How can I forget to mention Khoo Hanzhi, also a local artist and new mom, who painted a mural in Faye's loft?
I am full of pride today as we put up this series of Us in our living room by a local artist/mom/friend, Cheryl Lim Patterson.
Frankly speaking, I didn't know any artist who does portraitures. I don't know which artist will be able to understand what I'm looking for. Do I really have to look for one outside of Singapore? It'll be so much easier to work with someone local though. Imagine the cost to have my paintings shipped or flown to me!
As if the stars were aligned, I started noticing a girlfriend of mine posting family portraits she sketched/painted on Facebook and Instagram. I liked what she did with her commissioned works but what really made me put my money down on Cheryl was this, Talisman.
Cheryl does mostly lifelike portraits and they look just like the photographs given to her by her clients! She doesn't quite do the messy non-lifelike ones like I requested for but I know, if she could come up with her own version of Andy Warhol style, she can definitely do my family the way I envisioned them to be. Never once I doubted her. It was probably she who doubted herself but look! She needn't have to! She had us painted exactly how we wanted.
I was inspired by Julia Pappas - her Dallas in particular. And here, we have our family portraits under Cheryl Lim Patterson's keen eye and eloquent brush [#cheryllimpattersonportraits].
We worked really closely on size, colours and expressions through Whatsapp. Cheryl took so much pride in her work, always checking in with me before putting on the colours. It is very important for an artist to understand what his/her client wants and she spent lots of time trying to gather information from me to meet my expectations. Painting can be difficult to re-do especially when the colours are set. I know because I dabbled on Faye's used canvases before and the colours do not come out right when they are slapped on top of one another. The last thing a responsible artist wants is to disappoint. On top of that, Cheryl hasn't shown any airs whatsoever and didn't come out as, "This is how I do it and this is what I do. Take my style or leave it. I cannot paint you another." For that, I am thankful I found my artist in her. She is so talented!
She spent most of her Circuit Breaker painting us. I hope our colours made her happy and helped her get through Circuit Breaker much easier.
Meyer and I had a hard time agreeing on our photographs for Cheryl because we have both very different tastes. Which expressions and which age should we have us drawn? I wanted Faye in sunglasses but her eyes give her her character and we shouldn't cover them. I wanted Ewan to look silly with his eyes looking sideways and mouth open wide because that's him! But daddy thought otherwise. I wanted me in a hat and yes I got me painted in a hat *haha* Meyer would look good with a newsboy hat too but it doesn't characterise him. My husband's a simple man.
Here's what we finally agreed on - Happy. So that when we all come home, we will always be greeted with Happy.
Only thing Meyer didn't understand was, why I wanted us to be separated. He wondered out loud, "Why can't we all be in one canvas?" I don't know *haha* I visualised it and felt that four canvases would look Arty-ier than a regular family portrait of everyone squeezing into one frame.
I sent him my ideas of the abstract us on canvas and he gave me his big burly strong thumbs-up!
When Priscilla was here, I checked in with her on my idea and she too gave me her acknowledgement. My question for her was, "How big should the canvas be?" Priscilla didn't even have to think for a second. She looked at my space and gave me the exact dimensions. Her keen eye even suggested I could do a smaller canvas for the kids [20x24] and bigger canvas for the adults [32x24]! Maybe get us all interacting with one another even. That was a refreshing proposition! All I needed back then in August 2019 was an artist to seal this conception.
If you would like to commission Cheryl Lim Patterson to paint your family portraits, drop her a message in Instagram! When you let her know you've been recommended by me, she'll give you a special 10% off her rack rates.
I had an idea in mind of a rather different kind of Family Portrait i.e. individual portraits of each family member hung side by side to make a statement. However, they have to be captured in portraiture style and in monochrome. I know exactly the photographer to hire. However, Meyer couldn't see the art in it though and found it looking rather creepy, "Mmm don't you think they will look like funeral pictures?" Haiyo... no taste my husband *haha* But I had to respect him. It's his home too and he loves colours.
"Then, what do you think if we got our individual portraits painted?" I asked him one day. He was receptive of the idea! This home is graced by many artists. Our wallpapers are all original artworks of individual artists from all over the world - Patricia Braune from Australia and many South African artists namely Daleen Roodt, Lin Barrie, Donna Solovei and Nina and Michelle van Reenen. We seem to be attracted to South African creatives. Oh my! I just realise they are all female artists!
We also have paintings of local watercolour botanical artist, Sarah Lim and French artist Thierry Bisch in our living and dining room too. How can I forget to mention Khoo Hanzhi, also a local artist and new mom, who painted a mural in Faye's loft?
I am full of pride today as we put up this series of Us in our living room by a local artist/mom/friend, Cheryl Lim Patterson.
Frankly speaking, I didn't know any artist who does portraitures. I don't know which artist will be able to understand what I'm looking for. Do I really have to look for one outside of Singapore? It'll be so much easier to work with someone local though. Imagine the cost to have my paintings shipped or flown to me!
As if the stars were aligned, I started noticing a girlfriend of mine posting family portraits she sketched/painted on Facebook and Instagram. I liked what she did with her commissioned works but what really made me put my money down on Cheryl was this, Talisman.
Cheryl does mostly lifelike portraits and they look just like the photographs given to her by her clients! She doesn't quite do the messy non-lifelike ones like I requested for but I know, if she could come up with her own version of Andy Warhol style, she can definitely do my family the way I envisioned them to be. Never once I doubted her. It was probably she who doubted herself but look! She needn't have to! She had us painted exactly how we wanted.
I was inspired by Julia Pappas - her Dallas in particular. And here, we have our family portraits under Cheryl Lim Patterson's keen eye and eloquent brush [#cheryllimpattersonportraits].
We worked really closely on size, colours and expressions through Whatsapp. Cheryl took so much pride in her work, always checking in with me before putting on the colours. It is very important for an artist to understand what his/her client wants and she spent lots of time trying to gather information from me to meet my expectations. Painting can be difficult to re-do especially when the colours are set. I know because I dabbled on Faye's used canvases before and the colours do not come out right when they are slapped on top of one another. The last thing a responsible artist wants is to disappoint. On top of that, Cheryl hasn't shown any airs whatsoever and didn't come out as, "This is how I do it and this is what I do. Take my style or leave it. I cannot paint you another." For that, I am thankful I found my artist in her. She is so talented!
She spent most of her Circuit Breaker painting us. I hope our colours made her happy and helped her get through Circuit Breaker much easier.
Meyer and I had a hard time agreeing on our photographs for Cheryl because we have both very different tastes. Which expressions and which age should we have us drawn? I wanted Faye in sunglasses but her eyes give her her character and we shouldn't cover them. I wanted Ewan to look silly with his eyes looking sideways and mouth open wide because that's him! But daddy thought otherwise. I wanted me in a hat and yes I got me painted in a hat *haha* Meyer would look good with a newsboy hat too but it doesn't characterise him. My husband's a simple man.
Here's what we finally agreed on - Happy. So that when we all come home, we will always be greeted with Happy.
I sent him my ideas of the abstract us on canvas and he gave me his big burly strong thumbs-up!
When Priscilla was here, I checked in with her on my idea and she too gave me her acknowledgement. My question for her was, "How big should the canvas be?" Priscilla didn't even have to think for a second. She looked at my space and gave me the exact dimensions. Her keen eye even suggested I could do a smaller canvas for the kids [20x24] and bigger canvas for the adults [32x24]! Maybe get us all interacting with one another even. That was a refreshing proposition! All I needed back then in August 2019 was an artist to seal this conception.
If you would like to commission Cheryl Lim Patterson to paint your family portraits, drop her a message in Instagram! When you let her know you've been recommended by me, she'll give you a special 10% off her rack rates.
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A stay at home mum, blogging to widen her social life.
We want to echo the sound of love through our lives to inspire other mothers alike.
I have been reading your posts regularly.
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