More gifts!

Remember the bear Mikaela did a few years back? (Crazy that is has been so long!) In 2007 Mikaela gifted her Uncle Bradley with the bear to help decorate his NYC apartment. Her work is going up all over NYC!! :)


Mikaela spent the last part of 2008 working on this drum set for a close family friend. He requested it as he is a drummer. Turns out this was very challenging for her because it was a lot of clean lines and she is used to fluidity and texture! But even though she was challenged it turned out amazing! We believe there was a tear in his eye when we gave it to him. She did this in colored pencil on white paper.

Lots and lots of texture!

Scottish Kitten


White Tiger

Mikaela started working on the Scottish Kitten early on in 2007, not realizing all the texture which to an artist equals lots and lots of smaller brush strokes. It's very tedious work. So she wouldn't burn out from doing all that texture Miss Laurie had her alternate the kitten and other works throughout 2007. She finally finished it earlier in 2008!

One of the other works she completed was the white tiger for Lanny's office at work. We have framed it and it is quite stunning! Check out those eyes...its those eyes that she has such a gift for! What is kind of funny about the white tiger is it had just as much texture to it as the kitten but Mikaela didn't tire of doing the texture in colored pencil like she did with oil. The tiger, as you may be able to tell, is done in colored pencil on black paper.

Lucky Dog (or as we say it Dawg)

Lucky Dog is Mikaela's "cousin", the beloved dog of her Uncle Paul & Aunt Rebecca. We are all rather taken with Lucky, and none more so than his "parents". So for Christmas 2007 Mikaela painted a portrait of Lucky for Paul and Rebecca. She painted him using oil on canvas medium. The resemblence was uncanny!

Lucky wasn't all that impressed but we sure were!

For the love of her sister

Mikaela and her sister are great friends and love each other so much, more often than not! Well her sister is obsessed - and we really mean that literally - with kittens, cats, felines. Mikaela drew this picture for her as a birthday present. Isn't it sweet? We will frame it because it is done on the black construction paper with colored pencils. We are really amazed by it and know that Eliana will love it so much!

To Sell or Not to Sell?

Mikaela worked on this bear throughout the Fall of 2006 and completed it just last week. She did it on canvas with oils.
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Something happened that we didn't see coming when we sent out the pictures for the first time. We had requests for purchasing! We had questions of commissioning Mikaela to do pieces! WOW. We are blown away by this, to us it never seemed a possibility. So now the question is - to sell or not? Can we part with Mikaela's works of art? A friend suggested she do reproductions of the originals. That's an idea. And what about allowing her to be commissioned? She's 8 1/2, the waiting time could be awhile!! All this to say that if you have asked about purchasing or commissioning hold on! We are going to talk to her art teacher and get her advice on how to go about this. We don't want to be greedy and hang on to all of her art, no home is big enough to hold what she will most likely do throughout her lifetime. We do want to share her gift, for it IS a gift. So we are researching & we'll be in touch! But until then we hope you enjoy what Mikaela has done and continues to do.

The Gift of an Artist

Happy Mother's Day! For Mother's Day 2006 Mikaela painted both my mom and I's favorite flowers for our gifts. My very favorite flower is a Gerber Daisy and my mom's is a Daffodil. These are priceless gifts that are treasured. They join the ongoing art gallery!

Amazing, simply amazing.

As Mikaela progressed past cartoon characters, flowers, and landscapes she began to work on animals. The dimensions are different, the shadings more complex. She did this monkey first. This was also done in her first year of art lessons (2005)!

This Panda was next. It's hard to see if you aren't right in front of it but if you look closely you can see the texture of the hair. If you ever get a chance to see this one in person you will be amazed at the eyes. Mikaela did a great job of capturing this animal's gentleness.

Mikaela did this cardinal on simple black construction paper with colored pencils. We were astounded when we saw it for the first time! Again, her art teacher had to assure us that this was all done at Mikaela's hand. She had details in this bird that made it look like you could reach out and touch it and actually feel the feathers. In person you would see the texture of the feathers perfectly as well as the gleam in the eye of the bird. It is so life-like in person that we had to frame it.

She immediately followed it up with...

This fox. Again, it is so life-like that you can almost feel his coat beneath your hand. Both this fox and the cardinal were done in the spring/summer 2006. The fox we had framed as well, it was also done on black construction paper with colored pencils. In person the texture that she put on him is incredible as well as the coloring she put into his coat.

Amazing, simply amazing.

Wouldn't you agree?