Pacos Portrait has arrived back from the framers and it looks great. The frame goes so well with Pacos coat, the bronze and goldish colours compliment it well and of course the bronze and the blue colours within the portrait match unbelievably well. As all artists should know these two colours work in perfect harmony and it shows it in this portrait.

Toms training went well on Saturday although he didn’t want to go through the tunnel at first and I ended up crawling up some of it so he could see me as there was a bend in it. Nick took some film of Tom going around the agility course so ill have to put it on the computer to see what its like and perhaps take some stills for his page. When we are both better at it I might put some film up….. : ) Seeing as though its his third session he’s not doing to bad and his barking was less than last week which is good news!

The framed horse portrait below was a pastel 16 x 12 that Nick completed a few weeks ago and its now framed and should be arriving at its destination tomorrow. This has rapidly become one of our most popular mouldings for our portraits, its extremely good quality and just finishes every painting beautifully. Our next portrait of Paco is also being framed in this and I should have some images in the next few days.

Toms Training Update….
An update on Toms training, he’s doing OK and getting better at training classes every Saturday. A really lovely couple from training have suggested we walk our dogs together to get Tom used to being with other dogs. We took a beautiful walk along a bird and nature trail here in Wales on Bank Holiday Monday and it was fairly successful. Tom did an awful lot of barking at the start, but gradually calmed down and walked along the path with Meg the other collie who ignored Tom all the way which was great. He would then walk for a while and then suddenly notice her and start barking again. We are hoping that along with his training and these extra walks we can really help Tom with his recovery.

Toms other problem is that he barks at people who visit our cottage. We had an old  friend to the cottage yesterday and was very good with Tom andwas sucessful at doing some obedience routines with Tom. We have found Tom is OK when people are sitting but as soon as they start to stand up Tom barks. So armed with treats our friend gave Tom lots of commands..as he does lots of amazing things now from training and it was great to see another person work with him and it really helped. By the time our friend left Tom wasn’t barking at all. Now of course if someone came in again today he would bark so it will be a long process but we are working with him in all our spare time.

This is a portrait I did about a month ago and the client has very kindly taken some wonderful photos of the portrait framed and she also had some taken with herself and the portrait too. I cant thank clients enough when they take the time to do this for me as it just makes the website so special. I am working on the London Art College website today and then I will be getting back to the main site updates and this will be added to it. Its been so busy with things happening in the studio these last couple of weeks, sorting out clients and packing portraits that I haven’t been able to get to it.

Tom’s Training ….

We have also started new training classes for Tom. We had been trying to go to our local classes which were in the town hall, however it just wasn’t working out. It was more of a voluntary scheme with three or four trainers and although we had paid for the use of the hall for the year and the beginners 7 week class we hadn’t actually started the classes as Tom has such difficulty with other dogs. We took him to the hall for 17 weeks just to sit in the hall and watch the other dogs but in the end had to admit defeat. It just wasn’t working for us or Tom and we kind of lost faith in it all. We began looking around for another trainer which could possibly help his fears and scocilaization specifically and we found a lady about 40 minute drive from us. We went to her for 3 one to one sessions and we have now joined her rescue class, the first of which was last Saturday.

The great thing about it is that the classes are held in her ménage outside, which is so much better for Tom than to be cooped up in a hall. Also all of the other dogs have the same or similar issues as Tom. There are about 8 other people and they have all said that their dogs were like Tom, fearful of other dogs and some even said their dog have a fear of people in the home and sudden movements. Its great to know we are not alone! The other bonus is that the trainer has loads of agility equipment which is integrated as part of the training and Tom absolutely loves it! He jumps the jumps, he weaves the weaves, he goes through the tunnel – he is a natural! We are hopefully going to make our own jumps in our garden so he can have fun at home too…that’s Nicks next DIY project : )

Here is the portrait of Honey and Mum framed and I’m just about to pack it up ready to post. Its a lovely honey frame and our framer has hand finished it with wax which we are really pleased with. I hope you like it!

Here is the Chocolate Labrador portrait Nick created a few weeks ago, I have taken some photos of Nick holding the portrait and some in the studio. Its pretty tricky to photograph such a large painting but hopefully you can see the beautiful frame! I absolutely adore this frame and there are two more in this range, one lighter and one darker. I think its going to be a popular one for our clients. We have also just taken photos of some more samples at our framers specifically for canvases and they are just wonderful. I hope that you like this portrait, its still up here in the studio along with the prints as our client is travelling up soon to collect it – hopefully we will have some photos of the handover for the website if they are happy to do so, I will keep everyone updated!

The bespoke sized pastel cat portrait has arrived back from the framers and I took some photos of it out in the garden with Nick holding the portrait. The frame has come out really well and suits the colour of the cats coats very well indeed. I think this is going to be a popular frame for our work. Hopefully this one will be packed and sent to the client next week.

We are absolutly thrilled with how the frame came out for Nicks latest horse portrait in Oils on Linen canvas. Its a lovely deep rebate mouldings suitable for our gallery wrapped canvas and it sets the portrait off a treat. When you look up close to the portrait, the lines and texture in the painting match with the lines and tonal ranges in the frame. I really hope the recipient is pleased, it wont be long now and they will be receiving it.

The portrait below was an oil portrait I did a few weeks ago that went to a returning client in America. The have very kindly emailed me a photo of both portraits on the wall together, both framed identically, they make a perfect pair. I cant thank clients enough when they take photos, as it allows me to see the portraits ‘complete’ especially when they are in place in the clients home on the wall. Its also great to see the frames clients choose too, as it gives me a good idea of what goes well with our portraits, for when we are choosing mouldings with our own framer. These will go on our testimonial pages in my next round of updates on the website in a few weeks time.

One of my clients, Lee Howard, very kindly had a photo taken of himself with Raison’s pet portrait. Its a fantastic photo and I have added it to the home page of our testimonials section and added the photo, some of our correspondence and a photo of the pet portrait hanging on the wall. I have also added a photo of the portrait when I was taking photos of it in our garden with Tom posing next to it! Have a look on Raison’s Testimonial Page to see! It was a 16 x 12 graphite pencil and coloured pencil portrait.

This is Nick holding the latest pastel pet portrait to be framed and its packed and being sent to the clients as we speak. The clients opted for the lovely wide honey frame which is such a lovely frame and goes well with a lot of our pet portraits and looks quite substantial when hung on the wall too.