Welcome to Charmed by Christine Portraits

Hi! My name is Christine Norman and I specialize in producing realistic People and Pet Portraits.

I hope you enjoy viewing my artwork and will be back to visit again soon!

If you'd like to order an original portrait of your own, or to give to that special someone, please contact me via the Contact Me link to the right of this page or by phone at (709) 730-0906.

Slideshow of My Recent Work

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Max, the Clarenville SPCA rescue

Earlier this year I was contacted by a woman inquiring about a portrait of a special dog whose plight had touched the hearts of those around him. She told me about Max, how he had been chained on outside without food or water. How, near to death, he had been taken in by the Clarenville SPCA, given medical treatment along with a good dose of love and care. How in spite of their efforts, Max had passed away only days after his rescue.

This story isn't an isolated one. This type of thing happens so very often that I think we, as a society have become inured to it. Seeing and hearing sad stories over and over again, we think there's nothing we can do to help anyway, so we turn away. Either in resignation or acceptance.

However, there are people who refuse to accept what others see as inevitable, but fight and rail against it. Who go out of their way to help and protect, and try to prevent it from happening again.

These people are special. They take the time to do what they do because they have caring hearts that refuse to accept what others turn away from. They force our eyes to see what they see, to cry for what "we" as a civilized society allow to happen.

By bringing these atrocities to the public eye, they force us to engage our attention, if even only for a brief time, on what should not be happening.

Animal abuse. Two words that shouldn't ever be put together.

This portrait of Max is my small contribution to the very special people at the Clarenville SPCA. They have my permission to use this painting for whatever purpose they see fit, in order to raise awareness and funds to help other animals.

Please, if you see this portrait in another format, as a card, poster, whatever, pause a moment and reflect on what it represents. Help them in whatever way you can. Help those unfortunate and helpless animals who deserve such better lives than they have been given through no fault of their own.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

- Christine Norman
Artist, Charmed by Christine Portraits



http://www.silverhawkpromotions.com/Max/news.html

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Back at it!!

I've been remiss in attending to Computerland lately! I'm going to remedy that, now that my brother has kindly assisted me in regaining access to my Blog.

(I may have to apologize for the way this entry is laid out. I'm using the iPad to upload and I'm not getting any option to place the photos where I want and labeling them, so please bear with me and my techno boo-boo.)


I completed a gorgeous pencil drawing recently! A co-worker of mine, Delores, commissioned a portrait of her husband and his beloved Harley Davidson motorcycle as a 25th Anniversary gift. I was invited to the party, and I have to say that his reaction was all I could have hoped for. He was gobsmacked into pure speechlessness! He's since told me that he absolutely loves it. It's in pride of place in his den, right where he can look at it whenever he relaxes in his space. He says he enjoys using the magnifying glass to check out all the amazing details in the reflections.

Boys and their toys. Craig and his new Harley

Cindy with Zoey

The next piece, a First Anniversary gift from Allan to Cindy, was an Acrylic painting on canvas board.


I've completed two others since then. One of them is a Christmas gift for the mother and grandmother of a former coworker. I'm not going to spoil the surprise by posting it yet, but I will say that it's a cute painting of an adorable dog. The original acrylic is getting scanned for printing in order to give a copy to Grandma... Or is the copy for Mom? I'm not sure! :D


My very latest portrait is another of those "I need something new to show off" pieces. I took the photo at last year's Agility Trial and have been giddily waiting for the right time to turn it into a piece of art. The time arrived and it's now a beautiful acrylic painting.
I'll love you forever - Dianne & Baxter

This is Dianne and her dog, Baxter. Baxter has since passed away, so it seems my photographing that particular moment was especially auspicious. I call this painting "I'll love you forever."

I'm always thrilled to hear what people have to say about their portraits, and with that, I have to share a couple of things. I texted a small copy of the image to Dianne for her to look at. She and a friend were checking it out in the University's pedway. They both burst into tears. I tell you, it does my heart good to get that kind of reaction. Ive since sent her a big file to post on Facebook and so I get to I share the public note that Dianne wrote on my Charmed by Christine Portraits page.

Yup. Need the password for this too...

Of course, I can update by emailing to the blogs, but what if I want to make some important edits?! Well... I just have to figure that darned thing out.

:D

Sent from my iPad