This is my initial drawing of Corporal Andrew James Eykelenboom. Andrew’s mother, Maureen, gave us the copyright to this photo to paint from when I met with her in Comox, B.C. in June. It was wonderful to get to know Andrew through his mother’s stories and photos of his life. We both liked liked [...]
Category Archives: Shairl Honey
Painting with friends
August 9, 2009 – 6:41 pm
For several summers now, Shairl (centre) and I (right) have spent three weeks in Newfoundland painting scenes there en plein air (outdoor painting).
Although we have a fairly grueling schedule while there, painting from sunup to sundown most days, it is well worth it because it helps keep our painting skills finely tuned, and it is [...]
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 love [...]
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 routinely [...]
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 [...]
Cpl. David Braun – preliminary drawing
June 22, 2009 – 7:46 am
This is the preliminary drawing of Cpl. David Braun. Since Cindy showed the method of beginning the painting by ‘drawing’ in paint, I’ve done a pencil drawing as the beginning of this painting. I usually do more of a ‘cartoon’ when I’m drawing in pencil to later paint. There is little need for detail – [...]
Shairl Follows ‘Andrew’s Smile’ to Vancouver Island
June 10, 2009 – 1:15 pm
“I have to meet this mother; I want to paint her son!” said Shairl as she listened to Maureen Eykelenboom share her story called ‘Andrew’s Smile’ on CBC Radio.
Corporal Andrew James Eykelenboom died on August 11, 2006. He was the first Canadian Forces Medic to be killed in Afghanistan. “Andrew was packing up [...]
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 [...]