Life has been busy! The commissions keep coming and they are getting bigger! These absolute beauties are on an enormous 140 x 100 cms aluminium stretchered canvas. It took us something like 6 months to do and it was an absolute joy to capture!
For someone who is generally allergic to cats, these guys and gals were a real pleasure! Once we got over who was who and sorted out who was in which photo and what relationship who had with who, the girls ended up together and the boys too! Its the eyes though which were fascinating because, depending on the light, the eyes could change from a deep green to a luscious blue. We plumbed for the green bias which allowed a yellow highlight. A cut glass breed of cat so I put them on a glass surface.
For all those who might be interested in learning more about painting pet portraits I am about to sign a contract with Search Press to write what I think will be my final book which will be called “Painting Dog Portraits the Professional Way” publish date is already set October 2018. The whole idea is to pass on all the lessons I have learned over the last 12 years or so to a new generation who might want to just paint a painting of their dog, or someone else’s dog as a present or even it make a living out of it and its all in Acrylics! But to make this book happen I have had to commit to a number of books which for me is quite a large number (I’m not as young as I used to be so time is running out to be able to sell them!). So I have launched a Kickstarter project to try and pre-sell as many of those books as I can. I can’t see Amazon or whoever getting down to the price I am setting them at, so this is a real bargain! But the offer only lasts 30 days (closes 2nd April) so if you are interested or if you know anybody who might be interested please support and/or feel free to share. There are also some Skype lessons available but limited in number.
I would value your support of this project
Pip was a pleasure to paint for some good friends who are as docile and yet can be as equally exciteable as their dog!! The problems with painting him were minimal except that the suite hadn’t been delivered when we met and photographed Pip, so we had to make sure the colour scheme matched the room and would eventually match the new furniture. And this is the result!!
The past has been a focus on making sure that the painting has matched the room or decor as well as making the image contain the character of the owners dogs. But this year we went a step further to get the painting to match the character of the owner and these were two cases in point where the background was made to match the impression left by the owner ………..on me!
When you do a show, you need something to exhibit but when you’ve gone, you need something to “protect” your exhibit. For years I would use ordinary sheets, either waterproof and/or just plain and they would hide my work from the world until I turned up the next day. But this year I thought I needed something a little spectacular to show what I do even when I am not there. So this is now my “nightsheet” for Crufts 2017, etc thank you to New Forest Signs and particularly Trev!
Some of the canine painting challenges have included the championship dogs who had to be “just so” but in some cases had recently passed away, to the life-size depiction of some of the biggest dogs in the world and the finding of my biggest canvas, so big it had to be made of metal! Everyone a real privilege!
