Robyn Millar

I always love receiving emails with fun ‘On the Wall’ photos like this! One very creative mama created unique picture collage walls in her son and daughter’s rooms with their ‘Kids Portrait’ series paintings. Utilizing an accent colour block with wall decals and their paintings to date, these feature walls look so sharp and full of personality:

little j – newborn through age 2

little b – newborn through age 3

I am totally in love with these!

If you would like your very own custom Minimalist Style ‘Kids Portraits’ painted just for you, check out this portfolio page for more info & examples, or feel free to send me an email and I’d be more than happy to help 🙂

(I’d also like to note – if you would like me to feature your ‘On the Wall’ shots, or images of yourself / gift recipients with paintings I’ve done for you, please feel free to send my way as well)

This is a little story of dog named Zeke. Sadly he passed away in late 2012, and a group of ladies who were very close to him and his mom wanted to get her a painting of this sweet boy as a memento. So they gave her a gift certificate that she could select her favourite photo of him to have painted by yours truly.

Today I got to deliver the finished painting:

‘Zeke’ | 8″x10″ | acrylic on canvas

When she opened it, she cried…. then I teared up too… it gets me every time haha! It’s always such a personal connection with commissions like this, I can’t quite put it into words, just a wonderful feeling.

After the painting was delivered I couldn’t wait to get home and share a picture of it on my website and my facebook page! And I’m sooo touched by some of the comments it has received:

I don’t know what to say, honestly! Thank you again ladies for having me paint Zeke 🙂 Just such a wonderful commission to be a part of!

& here are a few extra pix just for fun:

ear detail

mouth detail

custom gift certificate from friends with love…

reference picture taken by Just for Kix Photography

“Why hello old friends!” I said while looking at my watercolours in their new spot on my shelf, after they’ve been tucked away in storage (out of sight out of mind) for years now.

Lately I’ve been trying to “go with the flow” / experiment / try new techniques, mixed in between my custom pieces. And recently I’ve been drawn to dabbling with my watercolours again, and it’s been lots of fun doing so!

A couple of weeks ago during an outting to local art stores, I found a great little pastel storage box with really thin drawers. I don’t have pastels (yet!) but knew I could find a great use for the box regardless. And if you read my previous blog post… then you already know I have a thing for drawers haha! Anyway, I get the little gem home and discovered it was the perfect fit for my watercolours! Now they have a new home where they are much easier to get to, I bought some new watercolour brushes, and I am enjoying playing around with the medium after so many years of sticking strictly with acrylics.

I’m not quite ready to share any new watercolours yet, but I’ve dug up some nostalgia to share with you in the meantime… Here are some old OLD watercolours that I did about 10 years ago (seriously where does the time go):

My first ever watercolour painting! Gift for my dad for xmas in 2002.

View up Kootenay Lake from my grandparent’s property. Gift for their 50th anniversary in 2003.

Gift I painted for a friend of their truck in 2004.

What’s up next for my “go with it” plan? Not sure yet… and that’s the beauty of it. 🙂

My previous post was all about my new custom art desk, and now I’d like to take you on a little tour of the drawers. This unit has completely changed my workspace! My studio finally feels homey and complete (you know that “where have you been all my life” feeling? Ya that one, haha).

When I was designing the desk I thought about what I would like to store in the drawers, and where I would like them situated for optimal convenience.

Like a thin one at the top to hold my paint palettes:

A larger one for my painting clothes:

And an easy access small ‘go to’ drawer that holds the tools I use all the time throughout the day:

My favourites by far are the vertical ones! I wanted to create two unique drawers that can pull all the way out and double as a paint brush holder and a narrower paint tube holder:

I’m sooo happy with how these turned out! I can stash all the paint tubes that I’m using for a current painting in there, it takes up relatively little desktop space when in use, then when I’m done for the day I just plunk it back into it’s home in the unit! Easy peasy. So so so love. Here’s the paint tube holder /slash/ drawer in action on the desktop:

Since I’m right handed, I planned the placement of the paint brush drawer to be near my left hip when I’m sitting so I can quickly open it with my left hand and grab brushes out with my right hand in one quick and easy swoop. This is my view of the brush drawer while I’m painting:

I enjoyed designing the desk, had fun helping my dad in the shop making it, DID NOT like bringing it up the 4 flights of stairs up to our apartment I’m not gonna lie, loved setting it up and making the labels for the drawers & filling it up, felt right at home painting at it immediately, and honestly couldn’t be more tickled with it! HUZZA for organization and Drawers Galore!

Is it possible to love a desk? If so… then yes. Yes I totally do.

Living in a tiny apartment, we’re ALWAYS strapped for space. So it was no different for my painting area, and for years I actually used my jewellery bench covered in canvas to paint at…wait, was that weird haha? Anyway, it did the trick for sure, but for ages I was longing for a larger tabletop AND more storage. Sooo I decided to design my Dream Desk!

I’ve always been drawn to printmaker style cabinets / teeny tiny drawers of any kind, and label plates my whole life. So what better opportunity to incorporate these things into my very own custom design! I diligently measured my workspace and storage needs, considered multi-function / rearrangement possibilities (let’s face the facts here folks, we’re not going to live in this shoebox forever haha!), and necessary dimensions.

So the design was complete – now time to make it happen!

Progress shots, and my Lee Valley label holders I picked out:

Drawers galore – finished units / detail shots:

Complete desk with adjustable desktop, all nestled into it’s home:

Everything I had hoped for and more! Couldn’t be more happy with it 🙂
Who made this fantastic Dream Desk for me you ask? None other than my very talented dad! <3

Next up I’d like to share more about the drawer designs and some neat features… (next post)

If you could have any workspace imaginable, what would yours be like?

Did you know that I painted a dragon mural way back when?

Some time in grade 12 I got fed up of a poster I had falling off the wall all the time (cats… not sure how they did it but it happened, haha), so I decided to paint a version of it directly on my wall instead! In hindsight probably not the best idea… because it’s permanent and couldn’t be taken with me when I moved out and whatnot. But nevertheless, it’s a cool conversation piece.

I managed to dig up a progress shot with the original poster

Anyway, I got about 100 hours into it, then summer came, jobs came, college started, moving happened and all around ‘adulthood’ kicked in (oooh to be 18 again), so I never did have the time to complete it. I’ve thought about it a few times since (it’s at my dad’s house about 7 hours away from where I live now), but every time I look at it I quite like it the way it is. I’m not sure how to explain it… maybe it’s simply a dose of nostalgia, and that’s a-okay with me.

What do you think?

my favourite part of the whole mural – the dragon’s chest

detail of dragon’s head & iridescent paint accent experiment

quick snap of how it looks overall, unchanged since 2003

Overall it is approximately 6′ tall, in acrylic paint, circa 2003.

I believe that everything happens for a reason. That every choice / decision / path you take points you in the direction you were ultimately meant to go. That all experiences added together shapes the person who you are. And that whether you choose to be positive, or negative, is up to you.

In my art practice I take pride in painting custom artwork for clients, and the ability to paint commissions in many different styles. I enjoy translating a vision or idea to a painted canvas for them. But…lately I’ve been feeling like something has been missing with my art, something that went so under the radar that I didn’t even realize it was on hiatus… Then once I put my finger on it, it scared me to realize it’s been at least two years since I’ve done it. 

What was it you ask? Painting for myself. Paint just to paint. No guidelines. No thinking about if it’s “sellable”. Paint without a plan in mind. Just LET GO! See where the brushes take me. Embrace spontaneity on the canvas.

Please don’t misunderstand though – I love working on commissions with clients, painting specific pieces just for them! I am very grateful for this and I never take it for granted!! But on a personal and self-reflective note, I realize it’s time to add spontaneous painting for myself back into the mix as well.

I realize now that I hadn’t been giving into the moment, not painting what I want to paint when I want to paint it. This type of scenario had become a regular occurrence it seems. Convincing myself into and out of situations. Over thinking. And quite frankly not being excited to start a new piece just for fun, for just me. Not sure how this became the norm… but I’m glad it finally clicked so I could consciously move in the direction I’d like to go.

So it’s time for a change. Time to let loose… start giving in to the ‘creative brain’, and hit pause on the ‘planning brain’. (There’s a healthy balance and use for each of course, but you know what I mean haha.) Time to embrace the urge to grow as an artist, time to expand my mind, soak up new techniques, throw caution to the art-related wind when it comes to my own non-comission paintings! This… I haven’t done for a long long time. 

I’m excited!

Are you on Instagram?

I may have only signed up a few weeks ago, but very quickly got why it’s so popular and wish I’d joined sooner!

I love taking pix with my phone, and pretty much all the apps I have are photography related. I have fun playing with different photo filters and effects, or even making collages sometimes too. So Instagram has been a great fit! Immediately I was connected with other artists & photo lovers around the globe, sharing inspirations and appreciation for pretty pictures. I love it!

If you’re not familiar with Instagram yet, in a nutshell it is a free app for sharing your photos (in a square format) and viewing others. So whether you use it to share pix with family, or have a public profile so you can network with other people, Instagram is a great photo sharing tool.

screen capture of my Instagram profile on my iPhone, to give a little sampling…

Similarities to other social media apps:

Similar to facebook there is a like button under each photo, you are able to leave comments, or shoutout to other users by using an @. And like most social media you can follow users that you like. Similar to Twitter it utilizes hashtags (essentially ‘key words’ with a # in front of it), so you can add categories or key words to your photos so other users can find them (if you have a public profile). You can also search hashtags to find specific styles or subject matter of other photos you may find interesting (eg “landscape” or a particular city, or style of lens used, etc). I’m not a big twitter fan for some reason, but even though Instagram is like a photo based twitter idea, I find it incredibly easy to use and navigate and quite enjoy it.

screen shot from in the app – showing the keyword hashtags to describe this particular photo for example

If you are on Instagram and would like to check out my photos on there, my username is @artbyrobynmillar.

Happy ‘apping’!

Happy 2013 all!

Having spent the past 5 or so New Year’s in Calgary or away at my hubby’s gigs, this year our schedule worked out to jaunt over to the Kootenays to visit my sis and brother-in-law! So we were able to hang out there in their new house out in Wardner, AND my mom and her bf popped over as a surprise, so it was a great little family gathering slash sis’s bday celebration. Which we haven’t had a chance to do in a looong while, so good times all around!

Tinkering with the Hipstamatic app’s new tin type style film & lens combo on my iPhone:

new years shenanigans: drinkies, shiny top hats, sparklers, and hubby smooching at midnight of course lol

We enjoyed snacking, laughing, snapping pictures, and playing Pictionary (always a fun one!) awaiting midnight, only to realize we lost track of time and missed the countdown by 2 minutes haha! Whoops! But time does fly when you’re having fun, so it’s all good.

Otherwise the visit was full of chillax time, and got to cuddle with this little cutie face quite a bit too:

nephew puppy Nero

Then once it was time to head back to Calgary there was clear roads and blue skies, which is always a bonus!

All in all it was a great little trip… would love to do it more often, AND wish we could have the whole fam together more of course. Living in totally different areas of BC & Alberta makes it super difficult, but when we do get together it’s always great. Anywho… In the meantime… back to Alberta & back to work! haha

Hope everyone had a fun & safe New Year’s! Best wishes for 2013 & always 🙂