Here is the final scan of the portrait of Murphy. It is a 16 x 16 painting in oils on Cotton canvas and will be framed this week in the Honey Knots frame which we think will work beautifully. Due to the painting being square the fine line around the Honey Knots frame will edge this painting beautifully and we cant wait to see the finished product. I have added Murphy to the gallery on our horse website Murphy’s Portrait and also to our main website too – Oil Gallery. As soon as I have it back in the studio I will take photos!

Hope you are all having a great saturday. We are spending the weekend catching up with the website, blog, emails and generally sorting a few things out here. The portraits of Zeus are here ready and waiting to be photogrpahed so thats on my to do list! Will blog them tomorrow!

Final Scan of the Horse Portrait of Murphy in Oils on Canvas

We have been away for a couple of days as we took Tom to Exeter (South of the UK) for his final visit to see the behaviourist. Tom did brilliantly. The first stop was at a park where Peter met us with a local dog walker who was walking two dogs, a chocolate Labrador and an old collie – the perfect dogs for Tom to walk with. After even only 3 minutes we were all waking around the park, all dogs off the lead and Tom did not bark once. He was just being a happy go lucky dog – which we had never ever seen before in Tom around other dogs.

We then worked with the behaviourists rottweilers and Tom really didn’t mind those either. Peter used his most dominant male Rottie with Tom and there was no problem at all. We then took a trip right into Exeter City centre, walked around the whole area which was hugely busy with people, kids, buggies, dogs, performers and we saw the beautiful cathedral, we walked around the outside where people were picnicking. Tom did extremely well and wasn’t at all phased by all the hustle and bustle. He was energised but that was to be expected. It was a huge success and a relief to now have even more confidence with Tom and we have a clear path forward. We will obviously still need to work at his problems but it will be so much easier for us in the future.

I have taken some time to rewrite  Toms page on our website as I felt that after everything we have been through, it not only needed updating, but I wanted to write his full story to date.We have met, emailed and spoken to many other people who have been in our situation, dealing with dog aggression, I hope that the success and path we have taken will help others. Its a pretty long read, but I know I read website after website looking for the answer and so hopefully it will help someone.

Toms Page – Dog Aggression - Resolved!

While we were away my inbox filled very quickly and so im a little behind on my emails now : )  But one wonderful email that did jump out to me was from Banjos owners. They have recently had their portrait framed and it looks amazing. Hopefully they are going to take a few more photos of the portrait when its actually on the wall which im looking forward to see. Always love to see the paintings in situ : )

I will be scanning Nicks horse portrait tomorrow and I will blgo it asap.

Happy Clients - Framed Oil Portrait of Banjo

Here are two close ups of the Horse portrait Nick is working on. He hopes to add the finishing touches today and he’s getting on really well. We are away from the studio for a couple of days so I will scan the portrait when its dry when I return and also update the blog towards the end of the week.

Horse Portraits in Progress

Horse Portraits in Progress

These are the first stages of Murphy which Nick has been working on for the last few days. He did the initial stages about a week ago and left it in a drying stage and so its getting on well now. I will have another stage tomorrow as he is a little further ahead than this. The composition of this portrait is quite interesting as we have designed it on a 16 x 16 sized canvas as it really suited the composition of the photograph. Its working beautifully and is definitely a success.

Horse Portraits 16 x 16 on cotton canvas by Nick Beall

Horse Portraits 16 x 16 on cotton canvas by Nick Beall

Horse Portraits 16 x 16 on cotton canvas by Nick Beall

Missy’s Portrait!

Here is the tinted cat portrait I have completed for a very good friend of mine in Australia. I have added it to our cat website, I made a new section as I hope to do more over the coming months. You can see it here on the Tinted Cat Gallery >>  and I also added it to the main website too with the two other tinted portraits. I think all three work really well all lined up here – Tinted gallery >>

I also took photos of Nick signing Zeus’s portrait yesterday before we took it to the framers and I have added it to the homepage of the main website. All of the sites have had quite an update over the last few days, I think I’m pretty much up to date now. What i am behind on it blogging the portrait of Murphy which Nick is half way through already! He has been working on it for the last few days. He actually started it during a drying time when he was painting both of the Zeus portraits so it been sitting here started in the studio for a while. I will post it tomorrow for all to see.

Tinted Cat Portraits by Melanie Phillips

Tinted Cat Portraits by Melanie Phillips

Tinted Cat Portraits by Melanie Phillips

I have been updating the website today and have added both of Zeus’s paintings in the gallery. We took the paintings to the framer this morning so they will be ready by the end of the week. I will then add them to the framing, gallery and blog when I have taken photos.

If you would like to see the landscape painting of Zeus in more detail along with viewing the photos Nick worked from and the stages, you can see it here – Zeus in a landscape oils on linen >> You can also see the head study of Zeus in the same format on his gallery page here – Zeus Head Study in oils on Linen >>

In other updates I have amended our gallery navigation on our main website with new text and also added a new section for my house drawings. I really enjoyed doing the Town house illustration and so I have added it to the website along with a drawing I did a while ago of a local commission. If I get some time to myself (…if that exists!) id like to draw our cottage, particularly now the flowers and hanging baskets are out in full bloom. If so I will blog and post it on the gallery page too. The images aren’t clickable at the moment, if needed I will make pages for them later.

The town house drawing has now been framed in our Charcoal Skane (small) moulding. It works beautifully and just for something different I have photographed it here on our table easel. I took a range of other photos too in our usual format which can be seen on the website.  I have added it to our framing section and you can see more photos and closer up photos of it here – Charcoal Skane Small >>

I have a few more updates to do, and also blog my completed cat portrait too, but that will have to wait for tomorrow! Hope you are enjoying your weekend so far.

Town house drawing framed

Here is the final scan of Zeus in a landscape painted by Nick. Its a 24 x 20 painting in oils on linen canvas and I know I said this last week, but it has to be my favoruite painting to date this year. The feeling, the light and the colours are wonderful. You can see the scan has picked up the colours better than the photos from my previous blog posts, its much warmer than the stages below.

My next job is to put both paintings on the website and i will blog when they are online!

Landscape Painting in Oils with Zeus centre stage!

Zeus - Detail of the final scan

Here is a photo taken of Hattie’s oil portrait hanging on the wall in situ in the clients home. Our clients are hopefully going to take a photo of the portrait with Hattie soon too, which will be wonderful. As soon as I recieve them I will blog them for you to see : ) Hope you are having a good day!

Hattie's Oil Portrait hanging in Situ

Just a quick post today as I have been working on my cat portrait pencil drawing all day and when I am working at my easel the blog gets left till the last minute! So here’s the next stage of Zeus, the landscape portrait that Nick is working on. The grass is now painted in and its looking beautiful, one of my favourite paintings I think so far this year. My cat is doing well, I have been taking photos as I have been working on it and will post everything together when its complete.

Zeus portrait in Oils

Second blog post of the day and here are a couple of photos from behind Nicks easel. Nick is working on the landscape painting of Zeus in Oils on linen and its looking beautiful. I just love the limited pallet he is using.

I have been working on a very good friend of mines cat portrait. The cat is called Missy and it will be mainly in pencil with colour tints for the eyes. You can see the cat in the bottom left of the nav in my cleint list. I will add the first stage tomorrow : )

Portrait of Zeus in oils on linen - next stage

Dog Portraits in Oils on Linen