Frogs!

Mikaela LOVES Frogs! And since she has yet to do any art for herself, she decided to do a frog for herself in Watercolor. She spent a lot of time on it and we think the time she took was worth every minute, every second! It's stunning, for those of you who can't see it in person trust us! Currently she is doing another frog and this time her medium of choice is oil. When she finishes that one we'll post pics of course!
On a slightly different note, Mikaela got a great opportunity this summer to go to Chicago's Art Institute and take a week long art camp. Thanks to some of our "framily" (that would be friends who are really more like family!) she hung out in Chicago for a week, got to experience this art camp and see some of the sights! Now we are wondering if there are any opportunities for her in other cities like New York City where we have family! While visiting NYC in July we of course spent some time at The Met. It's a must destination every time we hit the Big Apple! We love perusing the amazing artwork from centuries past up to today and all the different styles, genres, and mediums! This trip we spent a lot of our time exploring the Egyptian wing as you can see from a photo of Mikaela in front of some mummies. It was a great day at The Met, as usual!

Beagle Painting

Mikaela worked on a beagle painting for her fifth grade teacher who has a beagle of her own. It is oil on canvas, one of her favorite mediums to use. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of Mikaela, Mrs. Jenkins, and the painting. Again...look at those eyes!! She has a way of making the eyes speak to people. Currently she is working on something for herself - the first time she has ever done a painting for herself! She is working on a frog in watercolor. After she is finished with the frog she has a lot more ideas to start on!

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.