Category Archives: New

Chair, Children's, Commisioned Work, New

Butterflies, Wild Flowers and Stripes on a Child’s Chair

May 24, 2014 Sue Banks Leave a comment

This little chair is a charmer with wonderful ‘bones’. It inspired me to paint the cohesive wide soft stripes behind the flowers and butterflies. All the butterflies are real species and most are native to the Northeastern US which is where the little girl who now owns this chair lives. Of course I would never ignore the back!! Don’t you just love Lunar moths? I chose to paint wild flowers like Chicory and wild Asters which are so much less formal and more likely to be part of a child’s real world.

Commisioned Work, Murals, New

Giraffe Growth Chart Mural

February 24, 2014 Sue Banks Leave a comment

This tall narrow mural depicts a life size (baby) giraffe as a growth chart. Showing you the scale of it is the young man we shall be charting. Isn’t he cute? Well of course he is; He’s my grandson! The giraffe holds a measuring ribbon in his mouth while down at the bottom a frog holds it taut. Watch out for the bee in the high grass! I have included a couple of ‘in progress’ photos taken before the ribbon was added, notice the close up of the giraffe’s face. A unique feature of this mural is that it is hinged in the middle to fold for easy transport or storage, kudos to my son’s father-in-law for building it!

Commisioned Work, New

Memory Board for a Family

February 17, 2014 Sue Banks Leave a comment

This Memory Board was a most unusual and challenging project painted on a 30″ X 30″piece of wood . A gentleman requested that his family business be memorialized in a painting that also portrayed his parents and his siblings. We chose to give the piece the appearance of a loving collection of photos posted on a bulletin board. The family patriarch had been a blacksmith who worked first on ice wagons and later converted trucks for specialized needs such as fuel delivery. The client described the building to me as he recalled it since he only had a modern view for me to use . The photos of himself and his siblings, from which I worked, were small and not particularly detailed. I faux painted the border frame right on the wooden board. I thought it might be interesting for you, the viewer, to see the faded sepia toned photos from which I did the larger portraits.

Commisioned Work, For Sale, Holiday items, New

Holiday Stockings with Cavorting snowmen

December 9, 2013 Sue Banks Leave a comment

These large personalized holiday stockings are created completely from scratch. I painted this first set of stockings for a family with two young daughters. The snowmen are having a lot of fun, one of them is very partial to pink boots!! Everyone loves the face on the little snowman on the old wooden sled. Chickadees, Holly and berries with red satin ribbon make for a sophisticated look for Mom. The houses in the snow references the Dad’s profession as an architect. I ended up updating it which is why there are two versions of the Jared stocking!!! I placed the painted cotton fabric on quilt batting and machine quilted around the larger areas, and stitched straight lines of quilting on the back side. The approximately 16″ tall stockings have a satiny lining and a cuff on the top with the painted name name of each family member.. A sturdy loop is stitched into the top back edge. If you are interested in having me paint stockings for your family please contact me through this site. Orders for this year’s holiday season must be received before October 31 of the current year. 4 stockings for $400, 2 for $250.