Recently we went to hear Maureen Eykelenboon talk in Spruce Grove where she spoke to the audience about her son Andrew for whom she created Boomer’s Legacy. Maureen talked about his experiences in Afghanistan and his conviction that what he was doing there was important work, something we hear from every single family that we [...]
Category Archives: portraits
Radio Interview
March 10, 2010 – 9:39 pm
On Saturday, March 13 at 12:00 we’ll be interviewed by radio talk show host Leslie Primeau on 630 CHED. Join us as we talk about how the portrait project got started, what we are doing, why we are doing it, what’s next, and how you can help.
Cpl. David Braun
September 21, 2009 – 3:18 pm
As we work on Project Heroes™, it is important to us to convey an indication of the soldiers’ characters – something that is hard to achieve from their official military photos that are quite serious and straight-faced.Cpl. David Braun was a sincere pleasure to paint. My studio was so cheerful looking at this handsome, smiling [...]
Still Life -Commemorative Painting
July 16, 2009 – 5:35 pm
Work on our soldier portraits carries on and in the meantime we’ve taken photographs of of some of the gear that the soldiers carry. The photos will be used for a number of commemorative paintings that we’ll be doing, a few of which will be still life. One of the first steps in preparing to [...]
Personal Time With A War Hero
July 8, 2009 – 1:58 am
This  pencil drawing was done with the photos of Cpl. Shane Keating at hand. I wanted to explore his face and get to know his structure before starting the portrait painting. Drawing out these heroes before I start painting them gives me personal time to get to know them. I can imagine their strength, their [...]
Impersonating a soldier? No way!
July 3, 2009 – 6:37 pm
I’m an imposter! I’ll start off with an apology for having the gear on completely wrong, I’m sure. And, I’ll apologize for what might appear to be an impersonation of a soldier. What this photo actually is, is me attempting to find out if I could actually carry even the lightest gear that a soldier [...]
Painting Portraits on Canada Day
July 1, 2009 – 7:36 am
Today we Canadians celebrate our country’s 142 birthday. We’re a quietly patriotic nation with a deep love of this huge land with it’s many wild places and just like our anthem says we are indeed strong and free. Giving others the strength and the means to become free is what our soldiers are working toward [...]
Work in Progress – Portrait of Corporal Cole Bartsch
June 19, 2009 – 6:59 am
This is the second stage of the painting with all areas roughly blocked in with the approximate colours. At this stage there’s no detail and I’m not too fussy about getting exact colours, my goal is to get the canvas completely covered with paint and try to stay true to the oil sketch which ultimately [...]
Contacting Families of the Soldiers
May 25, 2009 – 1:38 pm
Shairl is busy working on locating the families of the Canadian soldiers who have lost their lives in the Afghanistan war. In the meantime we are delighted when a family contacts us and invites us to interview them to be part of the project. She will be travelling from Edmonton to the Vancouver area during [...]