reference photos

Pet lovers everywhere know that their companions’ lives are too short. Over many years, I’ve painted more than three dozen pet portraits. My first three pet portraits (shown below) were done in charcoal in 1980, of my own first pets, Cleo, Ernie, and Pluto. Paintings of my own dogs and cats trigger precious memories, especially after the pets have died. I am grateful to be able to do this for other pet owners as well. My portrait of Mango was … Read More

  When we moved to our house in Tennessee, red foxes were among the abundance of wildlife we spotted in the surrounding woods. The red fox reference photo I found on Wildlife Reference Photos for Artists intrigued me, crying out to be painted! I love doing animals on scratchboard, and the inquisitive fox pose was a perfect candidate. Initially I planned to use black #Ampersand #Scratchbord™, my recent focus. As my design concept developed I switched gears… watercolor on #Claybord™ … Read More

  Beautiful ruby throated hummingbirds – the most common species which migrates to Eastern North America – visit our feeders from early April through the beginning of October. I’ve done numerous paintings of them, in watercolor and acrylics, and it was time for me to try one on scratchboard. As demonstrated in my previous post, I created a border design on a 14″ x 11″ black Scratchbord™, using colors to match those I planned to use in the artwork. For … Read More

“Elle’s Tobacco Planter” I once visited a gallery where the artist’s bio said he painted everything from his imagination – this was hard to believe, considering his work was realistic, detailed, and covering a wide variety of subjects. I learned quickly when I began painting decades ago that I would need to rely on reference photos to paint from. Some artists work outdoors, on location – en plein air – but that requires the time and flexibility to get out … Read More