Notecards for sale in time for the holiday season

Put art in the mail

These Notecards I created from my original pen & ink of "Canadian Geese" are for sale in notecard form with or without a message. You can personalize the message at the bottom of the card. I am selling them wrapped with a ribbon 10 for $25 dollars.

They can be either sent as a christmas card or the package of 10 as a gift. You can request any of my painting on cards for the holidays for the same price.

Send an email for additional info to dbphelps@msn.com

Canada Geese

Every Canadian artist I guess at some point wants to paint or draw some Canadian Geese. So here are mine. This is a pen and ink drawing of two geese at a park near where I live in Denver, Colorado. Surprisingly we have lots of Canadian Geese here. I think they are a beautiful bird although I hear many call them a dirty bird. I am also going to be reproducing this piece on notecards to sell for the holidays wrapped in red ribbon.

"Canadian Geese"
Pen & Ink 11" 14" matted with a black matte very striking.

"It's not easy to be me"

I called this "it's not easy to be me" homeless in Toronto. I was doing a search on the net of "Toronto Streets" and stumbled on a photo of a young man with this sign. I added him sitting on the Toronto Star newspaper to show where he was and added a couple coins outside his cup. Of course I love coke so I had to make the cup look like a coca cola logo. I was also listening to the song "Superman" which a line he says "it's not easy to be me" and that seem to fit for this and so it was named. I had a friend once, he was killed May 2001. He lived on the streets of Denver growing up, he told me stories of living under a bridge in the cold of winters. It hurt my heart to hear them. When I saw this photo it made me think of him again and how I missed his friendship. Eric Scott may you rest in peace.

Watercolor 9" x 11"

Seashells & Seaweed

This is my latest watercolor. A collage of sorts. A wimpsy of items from the sea. Matisse once wrote of wanting to perserve his innocence and spoke of "looking at life with the eyes of a child." That is what I tried to capture with this piece.

"Seashells & Seaweed"
original watercolor currently unframed and unmatted 11" x 15"

Tickled Pink

I did this pink flamingo painting a couple years ago now. I love it a lot. I have never been much of a pink person for a girl but I do enjoy this painting. I found the perfect frame for this, it has a crackled finish to it. Almost like it was aged on the beach. I think it's fun. It looked great in Texas. I always wanted some of the cheap plastic flamingo for your yard, and when living down in Texas I finally got a pair. I just think they are a scream.

"Tickled Pink"
framed 16" x 20"

On the dock

Here is another one of the watercolors I have completed of children at the waters edge. I have decided that I am going to call this series "at the waters edge".

"On the dock"
watercolor
unframed unmatted 9" x 12"

Toes in the sand

This is another watercolor that I have just recently finished. I am thinking of calling this series "waterbabies". I have a few more watercolors that I have just finished of children at the waters edge. Ooo I might call it that. I have really been enjoying doing watercolors of children lately, and am quite proud of how some have turned out. I have yet to have the chance to scan them into my computer but will hopefully get to that soon. Currently I have been working on an intense watercolor of a mermaid and has been taking up all of my freetime. I will be anxious to complete that and get the mermaid scanned. I have received a lot of praise about that already and it is not even done. So keep tuned to see that.

"Toes in the sand"
watercolor
unframed, unmatted 9" x 12"

Water baby

This is a watercolor I have recently completed, I have not had the opportunity to matte it yet or frame it. But I think it is really cute. I loved the was it turned out. Again I use a large number of colors to create this piece.

"Water baby"
watercolor
unframed, unmatted 9" x 12"

At the Lake

This is the second acrylic in the series the first being "Gazing at the water". I loved the shadows the sun was casting that afternoon.

"At the Lake"
acrylic outside framed 11" x 14"

Gazing at the water

This acrylic on canvas artboard, painted from a photograph of my son Chris on the Okanagan Lake in British Columbia. I loved the shadows the mid afternoon sun has cast upon his back. I also liked that you are looking out past him at what he is gazing at, the calmness of the water.

"Gazing at the water"
acrylic outside framed 11" x 14"

Mr Gorgeous

My most favorite painting of mine of all time. I called this "Mr Gorgeous" because that is what my late sister called him. My sister for those of you that do not know, was mentally retarded, and 10 years older than me. She moved to a facility in Orillia, Ontario when I was six or so. She came to visit a weekend a month or so while I was growing up. We always shared a room and I was always very protective of her. My son Christopher painted here, was born in March of 1989. I had just turned 22 eight days earlier. He was the greatest gift I have ever been blessed to receive. He was the out come of a high school love affair--a boy, I will leave unnamed, as I am sure he would appreciate. We dated for about 5 years on and off. We were young, he did not want the child. He wanted me to have an abortion or give him up for adoption. I could do neither. Chris was a beautiful child, the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on. He meant and means everything to me. I wanted to paint a picture that would capture that. I think I did. The teddy bear in the picture my father gave to Chris when he was born and he still has it to this day, he is now 20 years old. I could not love and adore anyone more. I painted this from a photo that was taken when Chris was only a couple weeks old or less. After Chris was born my parents retired to British Columbia and I went with them along with Chris and my sister. My sister died of an aneurysm before Chris was a year old. She had moved in with Chris and I to help me out. That is when she named him Mr Gorgeous, and he was. I was over joyed with how well this turned out. My mother and father don't call me an artist, never have, which was always good for the ego. But about the time I painted this I started to call myself an artist, it gave me the courage to do so. The painting is acrylic on canvas framed in an incredible gold guilted frame and is 16" x 20".
I will treasure it as my greatest accomplishment. I will some day paint a portrait of my sister, I am still looking for the right photo. I know of one that I love is a slide that my parents have, but since we are estranged I am sure I will never been given it. So I wait to paint that another time.

"Mr Gorgeous"
Acrylic on canvas framed 16"x 20"
This painting not for sale.

Nelson's Secret Garden pt 3

Nelson's Secret Garden
3rd in the series
inside matte 7" x 9"
outside frame 13.5" x 16.5"

Nelson's Secret Garden pt 2

"Nelson's Secret Garden"
2nd in the series
inside matte "7 x 9"

Nelson's Secret Garden

A three part watercolor study. My father-in-law is an avid gardener. He has a large variety of roses in his garden; long stem roses, climbing roses and tree roses. In a wide array of colors. They are an artists dream. This is the first in the series, it was very peaceful painting these.

"Nelson's Secret Garden"
1st watercolor of the series
inside matte 7" x 9"
outside frame 13.5" x 16.5"

Nelson's Secret Garden

These three watercolors were painted from roses in my father-in-laws garden. He is an avid gardener. He are many prize long stem roses, climing roses and tree roses, in a wide aray

Pointilism Portrait

Pointilism, A postimpressionist school of painting exemplified by Seurat and his followers in late 19th century France and characterized by the application of paint in small dots and brush strokes so as to create the effect of blending and luminosity.
These however are pen & ink portraits of my husband and myself as toddlers. Each of the matte opening is 3" x 3" quite small but quite cute. We have them hung on a wall over my husband's nightstand in concert with "Angelic Andrew"

each inside matte opening is 3" x 3"
outside frame 11" x 17"
This piece is not for sale

Angelic Andrew

Andrew is my stepson, this pencil drawing was a gift to my husband during a very difficult time when we first met. His exwife was denying him visitation after they seperated. Andrew was only 3 and was the apple of his eye. One could say the sun and the moon rose and set on Andrew. I found a cute picture of Andrew in a desk drawer and desided to make this gift for him.
I had a highschool art teacher, Gerry Burford teach me that light creates many colors that are reflected on a surface and to give the greatest illusion of depth and dimension once needs to incorporate many colors. Keeping that in mind I drew this. While there was never any blue in his face I found adding the blue from his shirt on his face gave the piece greater depth and illusion. I call it "Angelic Andrew" because I think it fit the piece best. I know my husband has always loved it. Not soon after I gave this to him his lawyer was able to intervene and bring about visitation again. Andrew is now 18.

"Angelic Andrew"
inside matte is 5" x 7" outside frame is 8" x 10"
This piece is not for sale for obvious reasons

If you have a favorite picture of your child please email me, I would love the opportunity to caputure it for you in an original art piece.

Painted Flowers on the Wall

Matisse, a favorite painter of mine once said, "a great painter is someone who finds personal and lasting signs that express in plastic terms the spirit of his visioin." After receiving some beautiful off-white roses one anniversary from my husband I was inspired as they started to fade to paint this. I threw a red table cloth over the small oval table that they were sitting on and grabbed my paints and a canvas. It is painted with acrylics and the original painting was 18" x "24" but once finished it looked awkward to me and I was not at all happy with it at first. But I had this frame that a friend in Toronto has used to frame another piece of my artwork years ago. I loved the frame, it has a driftwood type appearance to it. I quickly took the other painting out and went at the canvas with some scissors and starting cutting strips off the painting until I was happy with this placement in the end.

"Painted Flowers on the Wall"
original acrylic on canvas, outside framed size 14" x 15"

City Life, Toronto

This framed oil on canvas was painted after a visit back home to Toronto. I grew up in Toronto as did my mother. She lived in downtown Toronto on or around Cherry Street. I took a photo from the neighborhood which I painted this from once I returned home to Vernon, British Columbia. It was November in Toronto when the photograph was taken and I tried to capture the dreariness and melancholy of busy city life. I wanted the viewers main focus to be the buildings, that is why the people lack any detail at all. I only want to sugguest them as they hurried to catch the streetcar.
I found the trip to be a great disappointment, and was extremely depressed when I returned home and I think the colors also reflect that. This painting is one of my husband and my son's favorite piece that I have ever done. They both appreciate the doom and gloom that is represents. It is very impressionistic in many ways, at least to me.

This oil on canvas, "City Life, Toronto"
outside framed is 16" x 20"

Red Shoes Diary

This is a pastel piece I did a number of years ago. My stepson received some pastels from his grandparents for christmas. After opening he said, "you can't draw anything good with these, they just make a mess," I had to prove him wrong. I happened to have these fun pair of shoes I ran up stairs and came down with. I sat and drew my feet in them and then used the pastels he had received to color the drawing in. He was pleasantly surprised by what I could achieve with the pastels. Once I was done he ran up stairs to make some creations of his own. This later became one of my favorite creations. I call it red shoes diary. I have always had a thing for high heels and have tons in different colors, the more unusual and higher the better. In fact I am rarely out of a pair of my heels. I once had a neighbor comment about it when I was out watering plants in a pair. She was trying to poke fun at me, saying something to the effect that "I bet you even clean toilets in heels" and I replied "of course doesn't everyone". I would say that I am like June Cleaver, from Leave it to Beaver, but with my own twist.

"Red shoes diary"
inside matte opening 7" x 9" outside frame 13" x 15"

Artist Biography

Dawn M Phelps

Like most artist, Dawn has been drawing since she could hold a crayon. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, she comes from a family of artists. While her mother is creative, her grandfather passed on the ability to draw to her and her cousin. Through high school and college the two of them studied commercial art. Dawn began her career as a freelance illustrator in 1988, in Toronto, Ontario.

Dawn is an artist whose intuitive sense of color and flow impart grace and graceful energy to her icons and decorative designs. As a painter her primary motivation is striving to perfect the illusion. The illusion of depth, the illusion of shape & the illusion of texture. Mastering the techniques that convince the viewer that they are looking at something other than a flat surface gives her great satisfaction. In choosing subjects she is most often guided my lighting and its creation of shadow. Over the years she has worked in many different mediums but ultimately acrylics directly on the wall or canvas has been what most of her work has consisted of. Most recently though watercolors has given given her the greatest degree of enjoyment.

With a major in graphic design from George Brown College in Toronto, Dawn got her practical training as an illustrator for a Toronto printing company then got her wings when she joined a women in business group and started her own graphic design company in British Columbia, Canada, where she had the opportunity to showcase her work on a local television program.

Today, Dawn works as an independent designer for her studio in Denver, Colorado. Her work is displayed and commissioned by private residences, daycare providers, food and hospitality businesses, retailers and others.