The Pet Portraiture Project: Winston

So here is my latest dog painting. Yup, Winston. The pet portraiture portfolio is growing…

The Pet Portraiture Project

Well, I haven't been working in my sketchbook lately. Actually, I do a lot of "sketching" on my computer. I think that should count.

Anyway, I've had this idea for a while, an idea that came about after I did a painting of Murphy and Molly, two golden retrievers belonging to my friends Linda and Tamar. They had hinted about my painting a portrait of their dogs for a long time. Then one day, I got out the disk of photos that they had given me and went through the hundreds of pictures of their dogs, compositing the right Molly photo with the right Murphy shot (it's a good thing I know Photoshop!) Anyway, much to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed painting the dogs. So much so, that I decided that I would, at some point, offer my services as a pet portrait artist.


Of course, I would need more than just this one painting of my friends' dogs! So the plan has always been to develop a portfolio of this type of work, then do some self-promotion and get people to commission portraits of their beloved canines. Naturally, real commissions and all other forms of paying work always seem to take precedence, pushing this project back, but it's always been there, on the back burner, and this last week I actually got back to it…

I did some photo research and came across an image of a Boston terrier that I liked. I took it into Adobe Illustrator and masked it, tried some different backgrounds, decided where the pooch's name should go and proceeded to transfer my idea to paper. Then I painted. And I had the same experience that I had with Murphy and Molly, that of thoroughly enjoying the painting process.


There was only minimal frustration when painting Roxy (a name I took from the first Boston terrier I found online). In the beginning, it didn't look like the dog but I knew that if I just kept at it, it would transform. There comes a magical moment for me whenever I paint something in the style of realism—that point where the subject "comes to life". I love that moment! Everything just comes together and for a fleeting moment the deal about being an artist seems a truly good one and I am always filled with gratitude. Too bad it's only fleeting, soon enough I return to self-doubt. So here is my finished painting. The only finished one of the week. I am quite happy with it.

Inspiring Myself

I get inspiration from lots of different places. It may come from a piece created by another artist, something I see while driving my car, in an office building, or otherwise during my daily travels. But sometimes (and I am always thrilled by this) it may come from something I created myself.

On Tuesday I was working in my sketchbook and a painting I had created a couple of days prior just happened to be lying next to me. As I looked at it, I noticed a section where the paint sort of made a figure. It was completely unintentional, and I had not noticed it during the painting of the piece. But there it was, looking to me like a figure stretching or reaching up for something. Reaching for the stars perhaps? Sappy I know, but also hopeful, anticipating, even elated. A simple extension of my state of mind at that moment.


I must interject here that Tuesday was a particularly spectacular day with regard to my mood. Everything seemed to be going my way, I received several phone calls and emails from people wanting to commission paintings, or at the very least, inquiring about pricing and availability. I landed a couple of interviews for contract design work. And I was finishing up a paying project, so my fears of starvation were held at bay, at least for the time being. I was in fact, happy.

So back to the mysterious figure in my work. First I tried to draw it without looking at the painting. It didn’t look right. I looked at the painting and realized that was because my memory cannot be entirely relied upon, I often draw what I think something should look like rather than what it actually does look like. So for the rest of the sketch I let myself look at the thing. And I came up with the weird little figure in the sketch.

So I took it further to a painted sketch. I had a small canvas prepared that would accommodate my vision of the composition. It didn't turn out as I imagined it, and I will probably paint over this first chance I get, but one thing I do like, (and I have to admit, I had fun painting it in this way) is the return to what I have come to call my "reverse transfer" process, a technique I have not used in years. But it adds a nice textual quality without altering the actual surface of the substrate. Look for more of this in upcoming works.

I've never been comfortable with "Lots of Blue"

Well, the book only said that I have to jot down 3 ideas a day in my art journal. And it expressly stated that they did not have to be good!


The first idea, which is closely related to the third, is an idea I have been thinking about for quite some time. To preface: I developed a body of work, a series that I have been working on since 2002, the Sticks & Stones series. Select paintings in this series may be viewed on my website in Gallery 3. It is relatively popular, I had an exhibit of this series at Remmi Fine Art Gallery in Denver last September, and a couple of them sold. Two more were purchased by an art consulting firm called McGrath & Braun (the biggest in Denver!) Except that they wanted me to "expand" the designs to include additional paintings but the catch was that they all had to look like they were one painting, in other words, painted at the same time to appear as one cohesive piece. A challenge, to be sure, but the commissions were completed and turned out amazingly well (please see Gallery 10 on my website). So now Time Warner's corporate headquarters has a Sticks & Stones hanging their lobby and Jackson Life Insurance has one hanging somewhere within the walls of their office building. AND, I almost forgot to mention, that commercial posters of #10, #28 and #29 are available and can be found almost anywhere at online art poster sites. Just Google my name, plenty will come up. Also, recently a good friend of mine has reported seeing them at Z Gallerie in Tampa.

The thing is, the Sticks & Stones series has traditionally been executed in an abstract style, and I have never deviated from this. But, having a background as a realist, I have often thought that the Sticks & Stones would lend itself nicely to a realistic interpretation. Earlier this year, I found myself yearning to return to realism and in fact did for three figurative paintings (see Gallery 2 on my website) and this idea came full-force once again for the Sticks & Stones. So these 2 little sketches are basically the same concept, just different thoughts on how the layout should go. The first involves positioning the sticks and the stones on some interesting, natural papers. In the second sketch, I thought that using a plate as a prop might be interesting.


Now the middle sketch (detail above) came about as Image Conscious, the poster company that makes open-ended editions of my paintings, has requested that I attempt some abstracts in a new color scheme. Ugh! Hence the title of today's post. But I like today's painting (shown below).


I am a bit self-conscious to share these, but then, that was the whole point of starting this blog! So here it is, my first entries in my art journal, and a resulting painting with "Lots of Blue".

Creative Musings (a start)

I had lunch with my friend Kevin today. He regularly posts to his blog, which is the predominant format of his site. I, on the other hand, have never really seen the need for a blog. But Kevin said that my website needs to be warmer. "It just shows a lot of paintings. Nice paintings, but just paintings. There should be more about you", he said.

I often think that people who buy my art really just want to buy my art. In other words, that they are not really interested in the person who held the brush or how the paint got onto the canvas. But that is silly, I actually know better. I have sold my art on the internet for going on five years now. And I can recall some of the people who have actually asked what inspired this, or where did I get the idea for that as well as a few lengthy articulations that conveyed their own experiences when they viewed my paintings, or at least their online images. Sometimes these comments have baffled me, how can they see such depth in my work? But art is subjective and, when successful, evokes something within the viewer. Happily, my art has, on occasion, done this.

One customer exchanged a great number of emails with me, very well-written and citing a number of sources of inspiration for me. He was a true appreciator of art and we had similar tastes. I was honored that he selected three pieces of mine for his collection. And I know that our exchange enriched his experience of those pieces and likely does to this day.

I guess my point is that people would probably appreciate knowing more about me and why I paint, what inspires me and how I feel about what I create, even though they may be reticent to actually ask. So after Kevin's comment, I immediately thought about something I read in one of the books I am reading entitled "Taking the Leap". The author suggests keeping a visual diary, a journal of ideas and thoughts about my art, noting that most important artists have kept some sort of art journal. After reading that I thought, "I am starting one today!" Now, five days later, it still lays in the studio, pristine and unmarked.

So my thought today was that I could share some of what I sketch in my art journal on my blog. Of course I still have to start it! But I have lots of ideas, sometimes so many that I get that overwhelmed feeling that I will never have enough time to explore all of them. And I probably won't, in fact probably shouldn't in many cases as I am sure some ideas may seem viable in my mind, but may not translate to a visual image. But that doesn't matter. It is the thinking, the imagining, the doing that matters.

So I am starting tonight, really. Really. More to come...