My Nieces

Scarlett Vaughan

2007

acrylic on canvas

16" square

commissioned by Melanie Vaughan

In the summer of 2007, my sister Mel commissioned me to paint portraits of my two nieces, Savannah and Scarlett Vaughan, for my brother-in-law Zach's 30th birthday.

Now, when working with such precious subject matter I have to say the inspiration for me is right at the surface.  I love my nieces (all of my nieces and nephews for that matter) so much.  I spend a lot of time with them and we have a true bond.  All my nieces & nephews are like my "other kids"--the ones that I didn't have to give birth to but get to reap the benefits of.

I decided to paint the portrait of Scarlett, who wasn't even one at the time, using a palette knife and tons of pink because that's just her.  When I finished the portrait something just wasn't right about her.  The giant brown eyes were spot on but what was the problem?  Her mouth.  Right.  I used the palette knife to literally cut the two sides of her mouth clean off (not to sound Nip/Tuckish or graphic) and that was it.  Her perfect little rosebud mouth was reborn in my portrait of her.

Savannah Vaughan

2007

acrylic on canvas

16" square

commissioned by Melanie Vaughan

Next was the portrait of Savannah.  Savannah is the essence of "princess".  At almost 3 years old, the child was ALWAYS wearing her princess crown.  Even to sleep in.  It was so cute and also, so her.  How at 3 years old does someone already have such a strong character?  It was amazing to me, made more so by the fact that my own daughter, Carter, was never into princesses.  I chose to paint Savannah (Peenee is her nickname--however the hell you are supposed to spell that) using small brush strokes and using a lot of purple in her skin and in the background.  Savannah's amazing bedroom is one of those shades of purple.  Sometimes I do not go a realistic colour route when painting eyes, skin and hair.  For some reason I did chose to paint the Vaughan girls with their big, brown eyes.  Sometimes the "real" thing is a necessity, sometimes it's not.

Remember too, I'm painting my interpretation of a person.  I'm not a realist.  I'd love to be but just don't have the patience.  While I can paint and draw completely realistically, but it's just not my "thing".  Ya dig?

xx

J

The Cottage

When I was little we used to go (not terribly often) to my grandparents cottage on the Trent River in Trenton.  Man, how we loved that place.  The fishing was amazing...the swimming was a little scary (EELS & SNAKES) but somehow I became hooked on the whole cottage thing from a young age.  Of course, as a child I had no idea about just how much work cottaging actually is for the parents involved, but I distinctly remember  begging my parents for a cottage and their distinct response was a loud "NO".

When I was in first year university, I almost fell off my bed when my mum called to tell me they had just bought property on Lake Muskoka and were about to build the first of our 3 family cottages.  WOW.  The Lake Muskoka cottage was awesome--I was 19, Ade was 17, Mel was 13 and little Ash was only 9.  We were perfect ages to truly begin cottaging.  We loved that place and had a great 7 years there.

My family being who they are, were ready to move on to "bigger and better" after the first 7 years on Muskoka.  Mum and Dad (from hereonin known as R & C) purchased a beautiful piece of property on the north end of Lake Rosseau where they built a gorgeous second cottage.  We were on a small bay known as "Snug Harbour" and were actually right beside Martin Short & family (lots of great stories there, but I'll save them for another time).  We stayed at that cottage for another 7 years at which point the family was expanding again.  I was married to Sean, we had Tristan and Carter-Ade & Shiv had tied the knot too and so had Mel and Zach and Ash and Nickle were soon to follow.  We loved the main cottage and the bunky but truly, there were too many of us.  On a whim, R & C tried to sell the cottage, did and within seconds bought a yet unfinished cottage on Lake Joseph (we did all 3 big lakes in Muskoka).

The cottage on Lake Joe was enormous - 8-10,000 sq. ft. or something.  If you left your socks in your room it was a physical ordeal to run around to get them.  We had lots of fun, fun times there too and added Savannah and Fionnlagh to the family while there.  I think baby Scarlett even hung out at Joe. R & C commissioned a painting of that cottage from me...which is shown here (if it actually posts where I want it to).

Carter Cottage

2007

acrylic on canvas

60" w x 48" h

commissioned by Ron & Carol Carter

In September 2007, Sean and I spent our anniversary at St. Anne's Inn and Spa.  It was truly an unbelievable location.   I remember distinctly sitting around the pool with Sean saying, "Mum & Dad should do something like this...a gorgeous farm in the middle of nowhere."  You see, at this point, we were all thoroughly fed up with the drive north on the 400.  The cottage on Muskoka was 1.5 hours away, but Rosseau and Joe were more like 2.5 hours MINIMUM.   We came home from our weekend at St. Anne's and told R & C about our idea.  They laughed and then called us the next morning looking for more details.

I'm not joking when I say 5 weeks to the day of that conversation, the cottage was sold and the new "farm" property was purchased.  They are seriously impulsive people.  Little did we know that the sale of our cottage property was one of the last "big" deals in Muskoka before the market bottomed out.  

R & C purchased an incredible property of 100 acres of farmland in Hockley Valley (just north of Caledon) and built the "farm".  But that, my friends, is another story (and I haven't painted it yet).

xx

J

Ethan, Gavin & Tatum and The Battle Family Portraits

Ethan, Gavin and Tatum
2006
acrylic on canvas
36" w x 30"h
commissioned by Joe & Kim Delonghi


When my son Tristan started Junior Kindergarten in 2003, I was introduced to a whole new group of friends--something that was completely unexpected for me. This new group of friends are incredibly supportive, smart, influential and a whole other list of adjectives that I could go on and on with (at the risk of sounding like I am kissing ass).  In 2003, I had several of my older paintings hanging around our house which people definitely commented on.

One day, my friend Kim Delonghi asked me to paint a commission for her--actually, she kind of insisted on it. She had a great idea--she named her children after Ethan Hawke, Gavin Rossdale and Tatum O'Neal. Kim asked me to create a portrait of her children's namesakes. I was intimidated by the idea but eventually accepted the commission...and here we are 4 years later.  Above is the completed portrait, "Ethan, Gavin and Tatum". The Delonghi's were very happy with it and it hangs proudly in their home.  I guess I'd have to credit with kickstarting my entire painting career.  Thank you Kim.

The Battle Family

2006

acrylic on canvas

48" w x 36" h

commissioned by Leslie Battle

My business has been generated completely by word of mouth advertising. I absolutely LOVE creating family portraits, in a very non-traditional way, of course. Shortly after creating the Delonghi's portrait, I was commissioned by my friend Leslie Battle to create a family portrait for her. Leslie gave me complete and utter artistic license--not everyone does, but to each his own. 

I create my paintings from working with photographs. In the case of a family portrait, I do not a need a family "photograph" but rather separate photos of all the individuals to be used. From there, I draw the family members separately then create a composition of my own on the canvas. Then I paint. The Battle's portrait is shown above.  I chose to paint little Coco Battle with her missing tooth space. Poor little Coco actually cried when she saw the painting initially because she thought she looked too scary. Cut to a couple of years later, I saw Coco in the playground, proudly showing her friends postcards with her family portrait's image on them. I think she got over her perceived "scariness". I wanted to show the missing tooth to capture a short moment in time, very indicative of her age at the time of the portrait. Coco is actually stunningly beautiful, as is her sister Maddie...

Enough about me...what do you think about me?  This blogging thing is kind of weird but I think it will help to show those who are interested in my work just what my process is.  

Later,

J

My First Post and How I Ended Up Here

Time to blog, I guess. I seem to post enough stuff to Facebook under both my personal profile and "Friends of Justine Fernie's Paintings" that I thought that I should probably start a blog. Who will read this? I'm not too sure. Blogs do seem sort of self indulgent to me but so does posting everything about my art career to Facebook. I've tried Twittering, but I just don't get the appeal...so here it goes.

My name is Justine Fernie and I guess I can really classify myself as an artist now. I say that because while I was working on my degree in Visual Arts at the University of Western Ontario in the early ninety's and up until a couple of years ago, I would never classify myself as an "artist" per se. I felt that that term was reserved for "real" artists--people who were famous because of their art. I have always been an "artist" I guess, but just not famous.

I pretty much am a lover of all arts. I danced (primarily ballet but also modern and jazz too) from when I was 6 right through university. Knowing I never had a "dancers body", I never chose to pursue it as a career, but I certainly loved it nevertheless. I used to play piano and the flute (yes, I did go to band camp!) and did some drama many years ago (I still am pretty dramatic) but my true love is painting.

Growing up, when my best friend Liz Sass came over to play, we'd draw. Liz specialized in figurative "books" while I focused on human bodies with animal heads--a sign of what was to come? My dad is an amazing artist and I wondered why he used to get annoyed with me when I'd ask him to "just draw" something for me. Now I understand. When my daughter sits down beside me as asks me to "just draw" something for her, I say, "No Carter, the only way you learn is by drawing things yourself." That's what dad would say to me too.

In high school, I auditioned for the Etobicoke School of the Arts for both dance and visual arts and while accepted into both programs, I chose to major in dance and minor in art (hello Mr. Dancy!). After 2 years at ESA, I transfered to ECI because I wanted a more "normal" high school experience...not too many straight boys at ESA at the time.

Perspectives

2007

acrylic on canvas

36" h x 48"w

I decided to pursue a degree in Visual Arts at UWO. I had several professors along the way who greatly influenced me, one in particular named Dave Magee. Dave was a hyper-realist painter. It would take him a year to complete a single piece. I could not ever imagine the patience to work that way but Dave was a magical artist. He shared so much of himself with me and Trish, my best friend at UWO and well beyond. Dave taught us to see the magic in people and things that were not "normal". We looked at disfigured bodies in the medical lab at UWO and talked about his wife's ectopic pregnancy. He taught us about degrees of verisimilitude (very similar) and Joel Peter Witkin. He was incredible. Dave died several years ago due to health complications caused by a motorcycle accident. I hope he somehow knows just how much he influenced my artistic life. At the time I was so young and did not really understand just how his teachings affected me. Now I know.

After graduation, I knew that I couldn't make a living from being an "artist" for practical reasons ($$), so after a year living in the south of France and coming home and working for my dad's architectural firm, I started to work in the packaged goods design industry. My first big job was working for Cott Corporation out of The Watt Design Group (Cott owned at the time). I was learning there how to become an evenutal production manager--how labels could and would be printed. Not overly creative but it gave me a great understanding for colour and how it is created (CMYK/film/litho/flexo etc...).

Once I got married to Sean Fernie in 1999, I left the packaged goods industry and went to work again for my dad's company, RH Carter Architects Inc. I have been working for RH for 11 years now. It has been a truly amazing gig--I have worked primarily at home and share the position with my sister Mel and my sister-in-law Siobhan. It has allowed us all to raise our children as almost stay at home mum's, while at the same time earning a salary and having a stake in a true family business. I am completely indebted to my parents, Ron and Carol, for allowing us to do this.

Okay, I think I'm off to a good start.  Enough for now.

xx
J