animal paintings

Dog portraits are one of my favorite subjects, so when I was commissioned to paint beautiful Bandit it was a delight. We decided on an acrylic painting on an 8×10 canvas. My customer Erin sent me a few reference photos and I was immediately drawn to the one with the tilted head (#1 in my photo collage shown below). But on closer inspection, I didn’t particularly like the glare on Bandit’s nose and the reflections in his eyes, caused either … Read More

I just learned that my painting “Heart To Heart” won another very special award in the 2019 Oak Ridge Open Show (which ended in November)… the “Open Show Viewer’s Choice Award.” This award is tabulated at the end of the show, by the votes from those who viewed the show during its display for over two months. This black Scratchbord® was one of my two paintings in the show and won an award from the judge – “Sorghum Maker” was … Read More

The intense eyes of a money-cat which I photographed at our local animal shelter inspired this new scratchboard, just for fun. Our two outdoor cats have a wooden ‘cat house’ on our porch with a lid which opens like a toy box. Rick made an opening in a mouse-hole shape at one end so the cats fit into the box but our dogs do not… and hopefully no raccoons or skunks can enter as well! So for this painting, I … Read More

  As a painter of animals, I know it is difficult to depict black fur. A big solid area of black just doesn’t cut it – you have to capture the highlights to make it look realistic and give it dimension. I was ready for the challenge of painting a black cow. This is my first cow art on Scratchbord®. My two previous cow paintings, Eat Chicken and Cow’s In The Corn, were both very colorful, created in watercolor on … Read More

I  created “Sweet Dreams” with a few new twists – not counting the twisted body of the cute little kitten: The reference photo is not one I took I selected an unusual palette of colors The application of paint was unconventional Watercolor pencils added some finishing touches From the first time I saw my friend Dawn’s photo of this kitty, I knew I had to paint it. Dawn had rescued her the middle of the road when she was ‘no … Read More

  “Heart to Heart” is the third in my new series of scratchboards done in what I call a ‘purist’ method. These are a big departure from my previous scratchboards, in that these use no paint! I’ve done a few black scratchboards in the recent past (Pink Lady, Hair of the Dog and The Queen), but each of them used colors to help define the values. In the purist approach, the black surface is scratched to reveal whites, and  the different … Read More

An art idea hit me like a bullet one day – how about an alpaca painting? I love painting animals, alpacas are adorable, people love alpacas… I should have thought of this long ago! A friend had told me about her pet alpacas a while back, so I contacted her and asked if I could visit for photos. Right away, Beth invited me to come by, and we chose a lovely sunny afternoon. Three alpacas were in the fenced area: … Read More

I feel like I’ve been a bit spastic with my art recently – jumping from watercolor to acrylics, working on paper, canvas, and panels. Whatever I am working on at the time is my favorite. There are so many different art materials and methods I want to try, and it’s a continuous learning process. Perhaps someday I’ll settle down and concentrate on one medium and one surface; I’m still figuring out what kind of artist I want to be when … Read More

  When I opened a new package of three little Aquabord™ panels, I thought I was trying a new painting surface… a thin layer of fine white kaolin clay on a hardboard with a pebbly texture, heralded as ideal for use with watercolors. The surface absorbs watercolor pigment similarly to cold-pressed (textured) watercolor paper, but the paint can be easily removed. It’s sometimes known as scratchboard, and when I was a kid we created our own by covering heavy paper … Read More

I’ve just completed one of two commissioned pet portraits I’ve been creating simultaneously. This one is of my ‘god-dog’ who is named Lonesome. He is the most timid dog I’ve ever met, always slipping off to the security of his dog bed when guests are at his house. My husband Rick took it as a personal challenge to convince Lonesome that it was safe to let Rick get close. It took a little while, but they eventually bonded. Our eldest … Read More