This portrait has been on and off my easel for a while. The client commissioned me back in January and requested it for a specific deadline – March 8th for her husbands birthday.  This is the painting creation – all the stages and the final scan along with some details of the painting. The portrait is a 16 x 12 oil on linen of a dearly departed dog called Ted. Hope you like it!

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Id like to introduce you to our new rescue dog Called Tom! He is a one year old Sheltie x  (collie we think) and is just over a year old. We have had him six days so far and they have been pretty eventful for both him and us.  He is an angel in the house, he is very gentle and polite and I have added a page on our about us section of the website which you can get to by clicking the images below. There you can read about where we rescued him and how he ended up with us.

We are pretty tired at the moment as we are getting up in the night with toilet training but hopefully he will gradually get into a routine. He has settled in well, and at this precise moment while writing, he is laying in the studio chewing his rawhide chew very happily – one of the many new things we have taught him. We have introduced him to toys – he didn’t know how to play, we took him to the beach and we don’t think he has been to a beach before and now absolutely loves the water…and he knows what a hose is in the garden and we have some great footage of him chasing the water from the hose.

We hope that he will develop into a lovely dog, he has a superb nature already and so its wonderful to work with him, he needs a lot of training but we  have a superb trainer friend in Scotland at the end of the phone k9  harmony who will be helping us through the difficult areas.

I will add more updates of Toms progress as the weeks go by and will add more photos to his page too.

This is my latest painting to come off the easel, it is a large painting at size 18 x 24 in oils on Linen of a lovely dog who has sadly passed away called Samantha. The painting has taken a good few weeks on and off to paint, with some drying stages in between. For me the eyes were the best part to paint on this as they are so loving, she has a very kind and happy feel to her face. She will hopefully be packed up and sent early next week, she’s off to the US and I am looking forward to seeing how the client frames the painting.

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This is the final scan and step by step images of the beautiful white boxer called Molly. It is a portrait in pastel on velour which Nick has created for a client in the USA. Hopefully it will be flying over this week!

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Nick created a portrait just before christmas of two super cats called Rox and Rio. Their owner kept us amused with their antics over christmas playing with the baubules on the christmas tree and she has managed to sucessfully take a range of photos of the cats playing with some string by their portrait. Very clever! We were thrilled when we saw the photos and they are perfect for the website! It looks like they are having a lot of fun too!A snippet from the testimonial is below and you can read more in the testimonial and happy client section.

……double matted in graphite and cream in a natural wood frame. The more I look at it the more I
love it!  The boys are glad to see that they have pride of place on your website!….Thanks again for my gorgeous picture!!  Cheers ……. Trish X

Before christmas I painted a lovely collie called Zach and his owner has very kindly taken some wonderful photos of the portrait framed in situ. Denise wrote to me and i have copied it below, and she sent me a great photo of her current dog upside down, just so cute!

I have gotten Zack’s portrait back from the framer and am so happy with the results.  The black frame with silver accent worked very well.  Haven’t quite decided where it’s final home will be but it’s current spot is on the way to the kitchen so I pass by alot :)  It is a beautiful way to remember him, thanks again.   I am now working on getting a good photo of Dani - I think this may take some time!?

I’ve been working a lot of Samantha’s coat and eyes, and I need to leave it for a day to dry a little so that I can work back in with the lovely curls. I’m going to start the portrait of Looks today, hopefully draw it in and I will take photos as its going along as its a very large montage picture which I’m looking forward to doing. I will hopefully have another stage of Samantha at the weekend.

Heres the next stage of Samantha’s oil portrait, I have been working on the background and have warmed it up a little more to make it slightly lighter and also have been softening the areas around the chest and back.

This pencil portrait has been completed during the various drying stages of Samantha and I did the finishing touches to it yesterday. It is a 16 x 12 drawing of two Wheaten Terriers called Rufus and Pheobe. They are both beautiful dogs and standing very proud in their photos which I think comes through in the portrait. I’m really pleased with the results of this one and hope the client will be pleased too : )

I’ve been working on Samantha’s portrait today, and this is the next stage. The light hasn’t caught it very well, its evening here now so its dark and the photography lights reflected a little, hopefully the photo I take for the next stage will be a better representation.