Beaver, hockey stick and Ryan Reynolds: Edmonton radio host unveils truly Canadian portrait

Another member of Canadian royalty has gotten the Lauren Hunter treatment.

Seven years after Hunter painted a viral portrait of Oilers star Connor McDavid, the afternoon radio host at SONiC 102.9 is back at it again.

On Wednesday Hunter unveiled her latest piece of art: beloved Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds.

“This is the Ryan Reynolds Canadian Essentials Portrait,” Hunter told CityNews. “This took two years for me to make, and it’s a fundraiser. All proceeds go to the Edmonton Humane Society.”

The painting of the Vancouver-born star of the Deadpool series took about 100 hours of work and features iconic Canadian things.

“I had always wanted to make an overly Canadian portrait of somebody who represented Canada, and the person who kept coming to mind is Ryan Reynolds,” Hunter said. “He’s awesome. He’s funny, and Deadpool is coming out soon, so I thought it would be a really cool time. And especially with Canada Day coming up, I just went goose, beaver, Canada, everything.

“I was thinking about Canadian geese and how they’re so hard to tame. But I’m like, if anyone could tame an insane goose, it would be Ryan Reynolds.”

In 2017, Hunter painted the now famous “Connor McPortrait,” going viral and raising more than $26,000 for Edmonton’s Youth Empowerment & Support Services (YESS). She even got the portrait signed by the Oilers captain himself.

Hunter hopes her latest work of art is brought to Reynolds’ attention.

“So I’m hoping maybe this time, if Ryan Reynolds can see it, and even bring a little more awareness to the cause, that we can raise even more than that with the sale of prints,” she said. “But you never know, but we’re hoping for the best.”

The radio host will be selling prints at the Art Walk on Whyte Avenue from July 12-14 in support of the Edmonton Humane Society.

“I love pets, I always have, and I kind of figured there’s some fun, fuzzy critters,” Hunter explained. “I mean, you’re not going to have a beaver as a pet, but I figured that tied in well with the Humane Society, and everybody loves dogs and cats, myself included. So they’re a very worthy organization and do a lot of good for Edmonton.”

–SONiC 102.9 is the sister station of CityNews Edmonton