Robyn Millar

I have super exciting news to share!!

A selection of my Mixed Media paintings are now on display and available for purchase at the Kootenay Gallery of Art in Castlegar BC!

Which paintings in particular? Ones that feature imagery from the area no less. To view a previous blog post that shares more info on these pieces in particular, including a bit of a backstory (located below the images), please click HERE. For a more in depth blog post about my Mixed Media work that I wrote when this new series was unveiled last summer, please click HERE.

The Kootenay Gallery features a vast range of beautiful artwork including: paintings, photography, pottery, glass, jewellery, and more. If you are in the area, I highly recommend popping in. They are located across from the airport, with easy access from the highway. For ease, a map can be found HERE.

Oh! And one more little note – They also stock a wide variety of my Pet Art Cards in the gift shop:

🙂

For availability or pricing, please feel free to get in touch with myself or the gallery.

At the beginning of the month I decided that it’s finally time for me to try a Sketch-a-Day type challenge. It’s when you commit to drawing, in one form or another, every single day! Whether you feel like it or not 😀 . You can set your own parameters including the frequency, theme, and materials – so to get the ball rolling I decided on once-a-day, of any subject matter, and in any drawing medium.

I’ve been considering this for a while, because I definitely don’t feel that I doodle or experiment as often as I would like to. Between all the behind the scenes organization & admin that comes with being an artist / self-employed, and obviously time spent painting commissions, I find it hard to make time for myself to just experiment and play with art materials. So I thought this challenge was a good step in the right direction.

On July 1st I made a point of heading out for a new sketchbook for this specific task! I know myself well in that I knew if I went with a large sketchbook this whole process would feel too daunting lol. So to keep it fun, and more manageable, I decided to go with a small scale sketchbook. One that I can even just throw in my purse and draw wherever I go, which I love.

So why not share this until right now? Well, a couple reasons: partly because I wasn’t sure if I’d even make it past the 3 day mark to be honest lol, but mostly because I’ve been working like crazy between Pet Portrait orders, my Sale, and some other things I haven’t even had a chance to share yet, it means that my blogging has taken a backseat temporarily once again. BUT I’m excited to share that I’m now three weeks into my sketch-a-day challenge, yay! There are definitely days where it comes easy, and some days not so much, but the whole point is to push yourself and see where it goes. And I’m really enjoying it so far.

If you would like to join me on this challenge (with whatever parameters you like) I would so love that! So please feel free to share pictures/questions/etc with me 🙂 . Otherwise I will be posting pix more frequently on my Instagram account along the way, so if you have an account you can find me at @ArtByRobynMillar, or if you don’t have an account but would like to see pix anyway you can visit www.instagram.com/ArtByRobynMillar as well. Below is the pic from Day 1, and I will definitely share more pix in blog posts to come.

July 1st 2014: A maple leaf for Canada Day, in ink & watercolour.

Meet Leelu & Bella! My latest Pet Portrait models 🙂

My husband and I said “toodle-oo” to some good friends this weekend as they prepared for a big move to Montreal. Sad to see them leave Calgary, but excited for their new adventure! Leading up to the move they hired me to paint their beautiful kitties Leelu (grey, on left) and Bella (black, on right). I had ‘cat-sitted’ for them various times and Bella was very social with me and enjoyed pets and cuddles (if you don’t know this about me yet, you do now –> I LOVE CATS!). On the flip side, Leelu was very shy and I only saw her twice ever I think lol. I didn’t take it personally though, I hear that most people never see her at all! So I feel like I passed her test which was nice lol. Anyway! Photo wise, I’m so glad my friends were able to get this adorable pic of their cats cuddling together, the perfect reference image for their painting.

When we met up before they flew out we got a pic of Bella checking out the painting (not pictured is Leelu… she was hiding per usual lol):

So cute 🙂

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Six new Mixed Media paintings are now up on my website! And I’m super excited to share pix. Above is a sneak peek, but please visit my Mixed Media portfolio page to view full images of each. All six are currently available, so please feel free to get in touch with me with questions or purchase inquiries 🙂 . This series is near and dear to me, and below is an artist statement on this set in particular:

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Last month a special order headed from my Calgary studio to Vancouver Island. A client had contacted me to create a custom Pet Portrait of her mom’s 5 year old Australian Shepard / Poodle cross named Charlie. The painting was a surprise gift for her mom’s birthday, and they even shared a clip of her opening her gift which was sweet:

(If the video isn’t displaying properly, it can be viewed HERE)

You can just catch a glimpse at the end of the video – but I thought it was so cute that Charlie was nestled at her mom’s feet while she was opening up her painting <3 . So cute!

They were also so kind as to post this adorable doppelganger pic with her painting to my facebook page:

Such a happy little lady! Also, bonus points for having Charlie pose in the pic the same way as her painting – love!

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!!

Last week I got to mail off this custom painting to Toronto Ontario, and today I get to share it as it was a surprise Father’s Day gift.

A different style from the painting in my Mother’s Day portrait post, this one was done in a black and white Minimalist style with a neutral brown background:

A good friend of mine contacted me earlier in the year to make this custom portrait, which was based on a photo taken at her destination wedding of her brother-in-law DJ-ing. How fun! I hope he enjoys his surprise gift 🙂

Wishing all you dads out there a happy day! Today and always.

Happy Mother’s Daaay!!

Today I get to reveal this special painting project, as it was a surprise gift from a client to her daughter & family for Mother’s Day. She contacted me earlier in the year about painting a portrait of her grandkids, and she had the cutest photo of them sitting on a quilt in super tall grass which worked perfectly for it! So we went with an 11″x14″ canvas and included the whole sweet scene:

As you know from the high density of Pet Portraits I post about lol, painting people is relatively new to my portfolio. However due to the increased interest in this vein, I’ve recently created a gallery on my website specifically for People Portraits. There are only a few pix in there so far, but I felt it was time to give them their own category. Take a peek HERE!

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Recently I’ve received a few different requests to add text to custom Pet Portrait orders which is kind of neat, but due to some deadlines over the past couple of months I’ve fallen behind on blogging (aaah!)! So before sharing the latest pieces with text, I wanted to catch up & write about this one – my first pet portrait with text incorporated into it…

Last fall I was contacted by a client who wanted to have a special painting made for her sister for Christmas. She hoped to include her sister’s 3 dogs (two of which have passed), which isn’t out of the norm as I’m sometimes asked to combine individual pet photos to achieve one group composition. But what was unique to this portrait is she requested that this quote be incorporated into the painting:

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Speaking of smiles – Look at this happy girl with the cutest ‘tongue out’ smile in all the land!

Abby’s painting was ordered as a surprise gift from daughter to mother for Christmas last season. When she sent me the initial reference photos I fell immediately for this cute pose of her sitting happily a grassy backdrop on one of their regular walks. For the painted portrait version a solid colour was requested for the background, so I pulled a nice light wheat colour from the original photo. Once the painting was complete, a sneak peek was sent to my client (by request), and the package was on it’s merry way to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

Shortly after Xmas, I received the sweetest unexpected note from the gift recipient:

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