Orlando-based Artist Captures the Magic of Beloved Disney Park Icons – Special Offer for DisneyListers! Shop.FreemanMarket.com

Orlando, FL, is a fabulous place to live and work, especially for artists like Rebecca Freeman. “I have always loved painting portraits, landscapes and other subject material, but life got busy and I stopped painting for a few years. I had live-in parents who required my assistance, a full-time job and a family to care for. When that’s your life, it’s hard to find time to paint.” About a year and a half ago, Rebecca and her husband decided to start fresh in a new place! Her sweet parents had moved to a fabulous assisted living facility in sunny Florida and she and her family decided to follow suit and move to Celebration, a neighborhood designed and built by Disney! Frequent visits to Disney parks provide ample inspiration for artwork and design and Rebecca has taken full advantage of her new abode.

A few months after moving to FL, Rebecca picked up her paintbrushes again and began watercoloring places around Disney World Parks. “It’s kind of been a re-awakening for me – painting again, now that I have a little more margin in my life. Disney is so colorful and universally loved. It seemed like the perfect subject matter to channel my talents! My first Disney painting was Cinderella Castle. I’ve seen so many paintings of the castle from the vantage point of Main St. USA, so I chose to have the more pastoral foreground you get from the perspective of the bridge going into Liberty Square. Sketching the castle took over 4 hours. You truly gain a respect for the concept engineers for this beloved structure and all its intricacies!” She followed this original 16” x 20” painting with the Tower of Terror, Animal Kingdom’s Tree of Life and the Geodesic Sphere at Epcot. “Once you begin to sketch something, you get to know it so much more intimately. Every detail, shadow, color, shape helps tell the story and capture the beauty of what’s in front of you!” Rebecca laughingly mentioned she had her fill of painting the geometric shapes of Spaceship Earth.

We asked Rebecca what’s next in her painting repertoire? “I’m working on a full set of Disney movie castles. I’ve already finished Prince Eric’s Palace from The Little Mermaid, the Palace from Aladdin and Beast’s Castle. I’m finding it particularly difficult to paint the castle from Cinderella since it’s most often pictured at nighttime and is sort of glowy without much detail. I was hoping to render a daytime view of each of the castles. Maybe Cinderella’s movie castle will need to be a magically moody nighttime painting! Arendelle is also intricately detailed, with rocky cliffs behind the castle. I welcome new artistic challenges, and with every painting, I learn something new. I’ve been inspired by Disney’s Winnie the Pooh illustrations of ink sketches and a smattering of watercolor. I’ll routinely sketch and then ink my pieces and then use watercolors to enliven them with color and depth. Who knows, maybe I’ll write and illustrate a children’s book of my own some day!”

Do you paint anything besides Disney subject matter? “I take projects on commission – portraits, abstracts, landscapes… I love it all! I’m currently working on a series of 5×7 watercolors on the 8 stages of the moon for a client.” She prefers larger formats like BIG canvases or watercolor paper – like 30”x40”. “I figure if you’re going to paint something, go big or go home! Smaller paintings are more portable, though, and I can take my watercolors outside and paint at my neighborhood Starbucks. It’s nice to get out of the house in the Florida sun and enjoy the weather.”

Rebecca sells on-demand prints of her Disney paintings and other home products in her store at shop.FreemanMarket.com. She’s offering 25 percent off all her products for Disney Listers. “I’m excited to share the Disney artwork I love with other people! I hope these products bring you as much joy as they have to me!”

Rebecca was formally trained in illustration, anatomical drawing and commercial arts at Virginia Commonwealth University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in the early 90’s. Her education paved the way for her over 30-year career working as a digital artist and Creative Director for a publicly traded media company. Standing in her sun-lit studio near Disney World, painting canvases is her favorite place outside the digital space.

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