An Early Christmas Present for Me!

Regarding Christmas, I have bought myself a digital compact camera, (Leica D-Lux 4) which will be ideal for carrying around to clients and once I have got to grips with it, should take some great photos!

To date I have had a play with the settings and uploaded a few shots taken on our usual walk around the field, where we met up with Cassie's pal Benji and also taken various "arty" shots in the garden.

The camera has had good reviews and true to these I have enjoyed using it so far, messing around with grainy black and white mode and depth of field/ focus.

In fact it seems more versatile than my DSLR plus it is easier to carry around and more user friendly.

A good reason to go on a few extra dog walks as an excuse for taking some more photos!

Well its now time to get back to the easel and carry on with the pet portraits over the weekend...

Christmas Commissions... This post will self destruct in five seconds!

It seems like ages since I have had time to write an artist's blog update for the site!

It might be due to the fact that I have several large pet portraits to complete for the Christmas deadline, some large and others not so big.

By "LARGE", the biggest canvas that I have ever worked on is an enormous five foot by four foot commission.

This will be a contemporary pet portrait of three slightly exotic animals, should be great fun to paint in oils on this scale. However... other than that I'm sworn to secrecy.

I also have six traditional style dog portraits to be painted in oils on the go. They are in various stages of completion but are all looking good so far!

Cassie has also had an early present of a harness, which was intended to stop her pulling on the lead so much and worked for a couple of weeks, till she got used to it. I think we will both need some more intensive lead training in due course! However, I feel much happier with her safely restrained when we go out on car journeys, especially in Summer when she might just go out for a ride in the Sebring.

An Update on William's Portrait...

An update on William's portrait which has now been framed and is currently hanging in Margaret's hallway for visitors to see.

We took a trip to the framers in Kettering and it was quite difficult to choose the right frame to set off the portrait but not to overpower the painting. A selection of mouldings were rejected from various timber finishes, antique silver and copper bronze but nothing seemed right. Eventually we spotted a two tone brushed metallic frame and knew immediately that this was the right choice.

Lots of guests and viewers have passed on favorable comments about the portrait of William and Margaret has also kindly posted a paragraph about it....

"I cannot put into words how pleased I am with my oil painting of William. It captures the essence of my little dog, an image I will treasure forever"

Next on the easel is a large 24" x 20" oil portrait of six dogs, to be completed and ready for Christmas...

William in Oils on Canvas...

Here we have the finished 12" x 16" oil on canvas painting of William. Commissioned by Margaret, It's hard to believe that William is sixteen years young, as he looks just like a puppy in the reference photos. As she lives locally, I had an opportunity to go to Margaret's house and take a great selection of photos of William, which always helps for composing the final painting.

The next step is to go over to the framers in Kettering and choose a contemporary frame (not sure what colour as yet?) to complement both the painting and Margaret's decor. I think that we need a quite chunky wooden, possibly oak frame or antique silver but we will see on the day!

This month we also finally made the descision to have Cassie spayed, mainly to make her life easier and her less prone to illness when she gets older. She has been confined to the house for nearly three weeks as a result of the operation and has made a good recovery...now we seem to be getting back to normal at last!

Joe Unveiled...

Welcome to my latest update...

Here we have a fantastic sequence of photos from Mandy, depicting her daughter unwrapping the surprise painting of Joe. Some quite emotional moments and as quoted by Mandy...

"Hi Steve,

The portrait was a great success. I gave it to her the night before the wedding.

I think the photos of her opening it say it all."

I'm glad that the portrait was well received, and looks great in the contemporary pewter frame that we chose. Once again many thanks to Mandy for the great set of photos and for giving me permission to use them.

Joe, Horse Portrait in Artist's Watercolours...

My latest painting is a portrait of a horse called Joe. Commissioned by Mandy as a special wedding present for her daughter who is getting married early this month. Mandy's daughter has had quite a few ponies through the years but Joe is the favourite. In 1997 she rode him and qualified for Horse of the Year Show at Wembley, the hi-light of the horse world.

The 12" x 16" portrait of Joe is painted in artist's watercolours onto Bockingford heavyweight paper. I had some really superb reference photos from Mandy which has enabled me to include as much detail as possible into capturing a quite lifelike representation of Joe.

The background is a moody "wet on wet" technique colourwash and I suggested the irregular edge to the painting, which looks not only contemporary and fresh, but is a bit of a trademark of mine. It should look superb when the portrait is mounted and framed, the icing on the cake! I have included a full crop of the painting and a detail image and would very much like to receive some photos of Mandy's daughter with Joe's portrait, when it is being presented to her on her big day!

Some feedback from Mandy...

"The portrait is amazing. I am absolutely thrilled with it. looking forward to seeing it framed and can't wait to see Sophie's face when she opens it".

The Pet Portrait Paparazzi....

The Pet Portrait Paparazzi have been out quite recently and taken a few

snap shots...The first is a photo of Samantha with Barney's portrait

framed and ready to be delivered to her dad as a belated fathers day

present.

A bit of feedback following Samantha's presentation to her dad... He

took the painting of Barney into work to show his friends he loves it.

Thank you ever so much again, the painting looks so much like Barney.

And more paparazzi snaps this time of Cassie with her portrait framed

and ready to put up on the wall. I think she was a bit surprised when

the flash went off but the pay off from the photographer ( a handful of

biscuits!) went down well.

I have also been working on a new commission of a horse as a

wedding present which is being painted in artist's watercolours.

Additionally I have a dog portrait,

William, to be painted in oils in progress...