My First Commissioned Work

About a month ago I received an inquiry to paint a coat of arms on two sides of an eighteen inch square piece of steel roofing. I found the project intriguing and challenging. A price was negotiated and I went to work.

We have a stack of recovered steel roofing my husband is saving for a different project. He was happy to cut out a piece the size I needed. With a picture provided by the customer of exactly the subject he wanted, I set about getting paint that would cover and stick to the metal. I normally paint with acrylics, but that would not be satisfactory in this application.

Yesterday I received final approval from the customer after he had a chance to view photos of the project. Payment was sent to my Paypal. My husband helped me package it securely and this morning it began its journey through the postal system to Texas. The whole process has brought me a great deal of pleasure and I made a little money to boot.

I am happy to do this type of work. Anyone interested should message me directly through my email address on the contact page. Pricing will be negotiated before the project is started. My schedule is limited so please give me plenty of time to complete the work if you have any kind of deadline in mind.

I do this kind of work on a first come first serve basis. If I negotiate and start a project, I will not dump it in favour of another. As always, I do reserve the right to refuse any work without explanation. There are things I don't paint well and I want all my customers to be satisfied. If the work is not within my ability, I will not accept the work.

Some New Work

Apple Bunch

I painted two very small canvasses since the last time I posted in this blog. This is the only one that I have uploaded to my Fine Art America account. It is available as a large print, but it will probably be much nicer as a greeting card or I-phone cover. The original is available for $30 plus shipping and handling. The same will be true for the second one when it has been uploaded. It you want to purchase a print or another product just click on the image or the caption and you will be brought directly to Fine Art America.

Currently I am working on a small commission project for a client. This customer wants a painting of a family coat of arms on a piece of metal roofing. I find the project intriguing because it is different than what I usually do. It requires different paint than I usually use, because I want it to last a long time for the person who wants me to make it.  I will post here about it once it has been completed.

A Castle in the Netherlands

Dutch Castle in Muiden

My maiden name is Bolduc, which is very French-Canadian. The ancestor who originally came to North America was a French soldier named Louis Boulduc. The family name may not have originated in France though. I have heard from several sources that the name Bolduc came from Bois Le Duc which is the French name for an important city in Holland. S-Hertogenbosch or Den Bosch is not very far from Hei-en Boeicop, where my husband's family name originates. Who could have imagined?

I am proud to be French-Canadian, but part of me is tickled to have dutch blood. Between that and my desire to paint a picture of a castle, my husband and I researched castles in Holland. I really liked the photos of the Muiderslot in Muiden the Netherlands and that is how this painting came to be. I have no family connection to this particular castle that I know of, but don't think that really matters. I may paint something in the future from s-Hertogenbosch. I'm just a little jealous of my husband who actually had the chance to visit that city on a family trip when he was ten years old.

This painting was more of a challenge for me than most of the other pieces that I have done. It took me the better part of two months to paint in my spare time. Only the Versailles painting to this point has taken me longer.

Anyone interested in purchasing prints of this painting or products bearing the image, just click on the image. It will take you where you can do that. The original is available for sale. It is acrylic on canvas 24” X 18”. The asking price is $225 Canadian.

A New Painting Nears Completion

My art work space isn't much to look at. It is functional though. It's also the best I can do at this time. This is upstairs in the hunt camp I share with my husband. We managed to clear enough space at the foot of our bed to put up the easel I was given by another local artist. A cheap beat up folding chair completes the functional furnishings. Everything else in the picture is stuff that doesn't have another place. If you look close you might notice the studs and insulation through the vapour barrier.

The current project is sitting on the easel and should be completed within the week. It has been a great deal more difficult than most of my other projects. It looks good though and I'm quite pleased with it. I'm planning something smaller and simpler for my next canvas. I won't go into any further information on this project though until it is finished. Looking forward to finishing it and moving on.

Winter is coming to a close in this part of the world. We've been heating with wood all winter. Hard to control the indoor temperature but the price is right. I'm looking forward to the spring, when the weather is warmer and before the mosquitoes take over.

Presenting iPhone Cases

The main reason that I opened a Fine Arts America account was the fact that I could easily make my paintings available in the form of prints. They do all the complicated work. All I have to do is bring my work, select the appropriate options and they make it available to the public. If someone likes my work, they purchase it, Fine Arts America prints it and ships it. They send me my mark up without any further worries on my part.

Along the way I noticed that my work could be featured in other ways on additional products. These iPhone and Galaxy cases are some of my favourite products. Most of them turned out absolutely beautifully.

The whimsical piece I painted with the bees pictured above makes an exceptional case in my view. We had considered replacing it on the site until we saw the phone image. I don't have an iPhone, but if I did, I'd love to have that on my phone.

If you want to purchase one of these beautiful cases for your own iPhone or Galaxy, it's simple. Just click on any of the three images in this post. You will be taken to Fine Arts America on the iPhone page where you can see all of the available images. They can be selected and ordered right there.

Dunkerque Windmill

Dunkerque Windmill

After completing my painting “Versailles”, I was looking for something smaller and less complicated. I was still looking to paint something that would have some meaning to me in the way of family history. I settled on this windmill scene from northern France.

My mother's maiden name originated in the north of France so I felt this was fitting. My maiden name is French-Canadian. It no longer exists in France and may have originated in The Netherlands like my husband's. For that reason this is likely not the last windmill I will ever paint.

The original painting is available. The dimensions are 16 inches by 20 inches and it is acrylic on canvas. The asking price is $190 Canadian plus shipping. Please email me if you are interested. For prints and other products click on the image attached to this post.

Japanese Girl

Japanese Girl

Back in 1984, I began working with a private tutor in Farnham, Quebec. Madame Provencher painted in oils primarily, but at eighty years old her hands were beginning to shake and she was no longer able to paint with the precision she expected of herself. She began working more with watercolour and other mediums. I have very fond memories of the times she and I spent together developing me as an artist.

This picture is mixed medium, primarily charcoal and pencil, with the flower in her hair and the beads on her earring in white oil paint. She helped me create this in my first lessons and it is the oldest work in my collection. There is a companion picture done right after this that is not currently on the site. I know where it is and once we've uploaded and prepared the image it will be added. The second I did entirely by myself.

The original does exist but is not for sale. It is a memory of my tutor that means far too much to me personally. Prints and other products of course are available for sale through my Fine Art America account. To get there you only have to click on the image itself.

Adventurous Chicks

Adventurous Chicks

While living in Ontario raising our family, we hobby farmed the small country property we lived on. One of our most successful ongoing projects was raising chickens. I loved tossing scraps to them and watching the flock scramble for their share. The peaceful clucking of the hens, the peeping of baby chicks and even the crowing of our roosters are sounds I truly miss from that time. Watching baby birds hatch in the spring is a magical experience. Our children played with them and named every single one even when we had close to fifty birds at one point.

My husband and children are very much into writing and of course our chickens crept into some of their stories. My daughter and one of my boys came up with a children's story, which is to this day not completely developed and still unpublished. The story features two young chicks, Nutmeg and Peanut, who are very adventurous and this leads them into potential trouble. Knowing that the story needed illustrations, this pastel work came to be. There were several other pictures for that story but not enough to complete the book. At this point in time there isn't a collective desire to push the project further although that may change in the future.

The original is not currently available for sale, however, prints and other products are available simply by clicking the image with this post. You will be redirected to my Fine Art America account where you can see all the products, prices and make any purchases.

Family Cycling Tour

Family Cycling Tour

With all the bicycle trips our family took over the years and all the photos from those rides, I just had to make a painting with us in action. It might not be the last one.

At the time of the tour this was taken from, we were living in Alexandria, Ontario. During the summer the factory where my husband was working closed for two weeks giving us the opportunity to plan a bike trip. We spent several months training with our four children at the time. The oldest was nine years old and the youngest was five. Everyone carried their own bedding and eating utensils. My husband followed up our train of bicycles with a bike trailer full of other equipment.

Our initial tour went from Alexandria down to the St. Lawrence River and then along the river through Cornwall. We looped back tracing part of our earlier route returning to Alexandria. We were on the road for five days. After a few days rest, we went for another two days. This time we rode to St. Polycarpe, Quebec and back. In all we covered better than 200 kilometres before that summer vacation came to an end.

The painting is of myself and the four kids riding in the centre of St. Polycarpe. My husband and his gear are not in the picture. It would have thrown it all off balance to try and squeeze him in there. One thing we liked about riding in Quebec is that most towns have a substantial church building. You can see the spire from quite a distance. It gave us a goal to aim for.

The original painting is available. The dimensions are 16 inches by 12 inches and it is acrylic on canvas. The asking price is $175 Canadian plus shipping. Please email me if you are interested. For prints click on the image attached to this post.

Versailles

Versailles

There is a connection between me and the palace at Versailles and that is the reason I chose to paint it. My family came to North America in the person of Louis Boulduc who was a French soldier. When he was finished serving the king in that capacity, he decided to stay and be a settler in the small colony. He married a politically well connected “filles du roi” and was appointed Procurator/Proxy of the King for the Provost of Quebec, by Louis XIV. He worked along side Frontenac, the colony's leader at the time.

Frontenac made a lot of enemies especially the church, but was pretty much untouchable. Louis Boulduc was not untouchable. While he was likely no saint (neither was Frontenac), he couldn't have been anything approaching the scoundrel he was painted to be. The end result was that he was removed from his position and eventually recalled to France where he disappears from history.

Both he and his wife returned to France possibly with several of their daughters. All their other children were left in New France to carry on the family name (which ceased to exist in France). The family named morphed into Bolduc and eventually I came on the scene.

When my ancestor was recalled to France it is likely he was summoned to Versailles at least once. His fate was decided there so for me this place is part of my family history.

Anyone interested in purchasing copies of this painting, please click the picture with this post. The original is available 30" X 20" acrylic on canvas. The asking price is $375 Canadian plus shipping or best offer. If interested contact me by email. Please no low offers.  I would rather keep it.

Ready For Action

Francine's Brushes and Pencils is open and ready for visitors. Please take the time to click on the gallery tabs to see all my work. All images in the galleries will link back to Fine Arts America where you can see the products available for each along with the current pricing. Purchases can be made directly from those pages for those interested. While the site is no longer “under construction”, we will continue to work to make it better all the time.

What can you expect to see on this site?

This site will be regularly updated with my latest work. Every new painting or drawing will be added to the appropriate gallery as it is made available. There are a few older items that are in the process of

being recovered. They will find their way here as well.

On a weekly basis, I am planning to tell the story of each of my pieces of work. Why I selected the subjects and how they developed. Those posts will also indicate whether the original is available and the asking price. It will also include the dimensions and other details. Most but not all at this point are still available.

For the future, I already have a Zazzle shop but to say it is in disrepair is an understatement. My husband and I will be working on that before adding it to the site here. I am excited about that because it will allow the images to be made available on so many other products and at attractive pricing. I am looking forward to when that will be available.

* Please note that images on the website have a watermark for my protection. Purchased items from Fine Arts America will not have that watermark.

Under Construction

This site is being built by my husband who is playing webmaster for me. When it is ready you will be able to click on any of the pictures in the galleries and be routed to the appropriate page on my Fine Arts America account. There you can purchase prints, cards and other products featuring my work. This site is being worked on a little bit every day.

Right now the galleries are all viewable. By all means look at my work. If you are interested in purchasing anything you see it is available through this web link: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/francine-heykoop.html?tab=artworkgalleries