Meet "The Creep"
So, remember in my previous post how I mentioned that I nearly died over the piece Aaron was painting while I was working on my "Girls with Cake" painting the other day? Well, here's the painting he was working on! If you know me at all, you know that I am absolutely crazy for vintage stuffed bunny rabbits. I have been collecting them for years, and even though I have a lot…I'd say I don't have nearly enough. Some are still bright and candy colored, but most have faded with age and their pastel tones are perfection. The well loved and worn ones are my favorite. If you look around our home and studio you'll soon gather that they're sort of a mascot or trademark of ours. We've incorporated them into our artwork quite a bit, but I think this is the first time we dedicated an entire painting to a bunny. That's why we chose our fave bunny of all to model for this piece. He's our big and tall pink guy, affectionately named Creep. He earned the name Creep because we'd always set him up in a vignette with other bunnies or dolls, and because of his height we'd always prop him up in the back. Well, standing back there behind all of the smaller bunnies and dolls, with his staring red eye, I thought he looked like some big creep who was pretty much trying to photobomb the vignette. But I say it in a nice way. I love Creep.
Like I said…vintage bunnies are a big deal around here. This rolling cart holds one gathering of them in our living room.
And we make bunny artwork whenever we can! Our "bunny baby" die cut has been a collector favorite…and probably my all time fave die cut of ours.
And here's another Creep appearance. This here is a pin I made (and some rings) from our scrapbooking papers! The bunny was colored in with some washes of acrylic paint, mounted to chipboard, cut out, sealed, and then I added a pin to the back. And if you scroll way way down to the bottom of this blog where it says "Thank You so very much for visiting…" you will see him there as well!
But I had been saying that we really needed to do more real deal paintings of our bunnies. So, while I was working on painting my girls the other day, Aaron started playing with some papers, and sketching out "The Creep" on this tall and skinny canvas.
He wanted to keep it on the loose side…and sorta give the painting the same time worn feel as Creep himself. Right here is the beginning stages with just the darks blocked in.
At this point my heart already started to beat faster! Sooo cute! I really just needed to see the eye and some color, and I knew how the painting would turn out. I snapped this pic and went back to work on my girls.
And in a little while he was all done! Here it is standing next to the real Creep. It's a deeper canvas, so the sides absolutely needed some color. You can't see a ton of it here, but he used a fun pink and cream polka dot patterned paper on the edges…and it is perfect!
We already got lots of emails and messages and comments asking if he is for sale. Well, he is in the shop now! We made prints and they look fantastic. It's mounted on a 1/2" thick wooden plaque and measures approximately 12" x 4".
I think this painting came out perfect, and Aaron is going to show me step by step how he did it, so that I can paint a bunch of my own as well. We've got bunnies in every shade of the vintage rainbow…aqua with pink ears…pale yellow with aqua ears…light pink with dark pink accents… The painting possibilities are endless! And this got me thinking...how fun would it be to teach a vintage bunny mixed media painting class?! Maybe at a future Art Is You?! Or at a few small shops? I think it could be SO fun!
I had to share! I am just in love with it!
Anyone else collect these?
Thanks for popping in! xo Jenny…and Aaron says hi!
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