A busy day

I just delivered Liz , Liz + Emma to Carole and they are now on the wall next to Rex , Hawk and Grizzly. We are going to start on the next 3 up portrait but for once all the dogs are still alive!


I'm going to start on a portrait of Gruff a lovely Staffy who unfortunately was lost as a result of the QLd floods. He went to a property while his owners flew home and he was bitten by a snake & died. He was only 3 1/2 years old and sounded like a one in a million little dog so his owners are devastated. We were worried that we may not have had any suitable photos but we have one that's a bit blurry but I can use other reference photos to help get his face.
We are going to create a 40 x 50cms framed Oil portrait of him standing which will be a great memory and I hope some consolation for his loss.

Time to call it a day?..

Well I was happily catching up on some work in the studio until I saw a large huntsman spider running around the wall.Now the hairs on my legs are standing on end waiting for it to run up my legs..I think I might call it a night..Rats.. now I'm not going to feel safe working at the computer

Well I'm amazed.

Well I was sceptical but Z didn't spook at him or even move one step backwards! If you want a great horse friendly dentist I'd really recommend Danny Badior m - 0438 676 182 . He's based in Muswellbrook but travels around the Hunter Valley. Firstly he gained Zeuss's trust and then stood at his shoulder with his arm over Z's wither rubbing him and supervising while his helper filed the teeth.
 I won't need to get him sedated anymore.A much nicer experience for me and Z even though he wasn't impressed..phew..

Here's Carole's finished portrait - Liz , Liz & Emma

Liz , Liz & Emma
35 x 74 cms
Oil on Gallery wrap canvas
'You have done it again. It is awesome. I'm sending it off for my friends to see. '
Carole
This is the second of 4 portraits I am doing for Carole. All the portraits will be on the one wall which is why I have made the colours similar. Many of her dogs passed away years ago and we had to really scratch around to find photos , some of the which were very poor quality. Both Liz's here have passed on .Liz on the left only a few weeks ago due to a tick bite. We hadn't bothered getting photos of the living dogs but her unexpected death made us realise how important it is to have decent photos. I have since been out and taken photos of all the rest of the dogs so if the unthinkable happens we can continue with the portraits and immortalise them like the others.
 Here's the earlier portrait I did

Rex , Hawk and Griff
35 x 74 cms Oil
All 3 dogs  passed away years ago.

I'm nervously waiting for the dentist to come and do Zuess's teeth.

We don't have a yard only a 25acre paddock.He usually spooks at anyone new especially if they have a clattery dental halter in their hands !I told him I'll let him handle Z. Z usually settles down but then backs around with his head in the air which makes life difficult for them. The last few times I've whimped and got the vet to sedate him and do it.He's not that bad but he's usually such a well behved horse that I'm not used to handling him when he gets scared.
 Lucky horses can't see what's ahead..I'm a bundle of nerves and Zeuss is standing tied up going to sleep ..LOL's

Have me paint a customised artwork of any subject you want!

Although most of the artworks I show here are dogs and horses I paint all subjects. If you have a favourite view , property or place , a wedding photo that you'd like to be immortalised in an Oil , a motorbike , yacht.. anything , you can have me paint it . You are covered by my satisfaction guarantee.( Don't worry I'm such a fusspot that I don't think we'll have any worries ! LOL's )


All I need is some sharp photos of the subject.Email them through to me at best quality.It can all be done through the internet and  I can ship Australia wide or overseas.

For those of you that haven't seen it here is the Newcastle Herald Article Jan 20th

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Here's an article that the local paper - The Cessnock Advertiser has just published

This photo was taken at the first sitting I did so the portrait looks a bit different now it's completed!

Liz & Rio - another from a little while ago.

This portrait was one of two I painted of Liz's horse Rio.
 I created a 40 x 50cm portrait of Rio for Liz's 21st birthday gift.
While I was taking photos her mother suggested she'd like a portrait of Liz + Rio as she didnt have many photos of Liz.The portrait below is the end result.
Liz had a carrot and was having Rio pose chasing it. He was very well mannered & wasn't at all pushy!

Liz + Rio
30 x 40cms Oil

Here's one I painted a few years ago.

It was a suprise Xmas gift for a young lady.

Brandy & Molly

30 x 40cms pastel

Brandy the black foxy had passed away and we didn't have any decent photo's of her but we had a breed book with a photo of a dog that looked ' just like her!'.

......For the portrait I used the breed photo to paint Brandy and another photo of Molly in her basket. I placed the two of them together in the portrait so that it looks like they had been photographed one day together.The portrait is a lovely memory of how they used to be.

Herald article now sometime this week

Sorry if anyone went and had a look.I was told Tuesday but I don't think they know exactly when it will go in.

Well I could fiddle forever but she's done!

Betty Linton OAM
40 x 50cms
Oil on gallery wrap canvas
 Sue Linton's entry for the Archibald Art Prize 2011

Well the photoshoot for the Herald went well.

Poor mum! When I first started the painting her portrait it was cooler and she was wearing a long gown. She had to wear it today for the photos and was dripping with sweat by the end of them.Then her inconsiderate daughter had her stand in it for another 10mins while she finished off the portrait!

Newcastle Herald Tuesday 18th Jan there will be an article on the portrait.

Now the Newcastle Herald newspaper wants to do an article on my Archibald entry.It looks like I'll need to do an unplanned extra trip out to mum's early this week for photos..If only I'd known ..I was out there today! That's 2 Newspapers that are going to publish articles..Looks like it better be a masterpiece..! LOL"s
 I've been madly painting trying to get it more finished.I'm not sure if its better or worse. I really need to turn it to the wall for a week so I can have a fresh look at it..I'm going crosseyedand don't know what I'm doing..!

I showed mum the progress of her portrait

Well I told mum to be truthful but that what she said wouldn't change what I was doing with the portrait as I know where I want to go with it.She asked for another look and said " I'm very pleased with it. I think I look enthusiastic and happy".


Oh well that's one down ..now I just have to impress the judges..LOL"s

Here's my latest 3 up portrait. Its only early stages but I couldn't help myself & did the eyes a little to give it a bit of life.

Liz ( deceased and lousy photo) Liz ( deceased ) + Emma

35 x 70cms Oil

I am doing this one with similar background colours to the earlier Rex , Hawk + Griz as eventually all 4 portrait painti...ngs will be featured together on the one wall.I won't post another now until its done as I like to keep a bit of a surprise up my sleeve!

Maybe I can show mum her portrait today..

I might see mum today and if I can fit the portrait into the car without damaging it on top of all the sailboarding gear I'll take it out & show her what I've done so far.I'll have to read between the lines as she's already told the paper she'll go easy on me being her daughter! I'd like to know what she thinks although for once I'm going to stick true to how I want the portrait to go.Still stuck on it but I have a few months before its due so I'll just look at it now & then .It looks great in the studio which is pretty bright but loses a few colours in the darker house.I'm not sure whether to bump the colours up to allow for that or just assume it will be shown in decent light.

Make sure you have some nice sharp photos of your pet!

Recently I've had two people that have had their pet die unexpectedly  and they want a postumous portrait.One dog died of a tick , the othe snakebite.Neither person has very good photos.I can sometimes use an average photo as a reference if I have other good ones of a similar animal to help. However a good photo makes for a better portrait!
So make sure you have some nice sharp flattering photos of your loved pets so that if the unthinkable happens you have the option of immortalising the memories and good times of them in a portrait!

Peace & Quiet!

Well it worked for a while..Much as I love the roos they have been a real pain lately.It's peak breeding time and the males are following the females around clucking loudly and then they get under the front verandah & bang & crash & cluck.They often wake us at night.


Today I got sick of it and went out and shoo'd them to no avail so I got a bucket of water & threw it at the big male.Missed him but at least we got a bit of peace for a while...these photos show he's at it again!

General view out the front door at 3pm..


The dominant male gets the good while the others wait at the back and occasionally challenge him and thats when all the grunting & roaring goes on while he chases them off...argh!

This is a close up of " Arnold" ( muscle man ) after Arnold Swazchnegger(?)



Arnie and his girl who was under the verandah 

Starting on my 2nd portrait for Carole

Carole 1st found out about me when she witnessed the unveiling of a portrait her friend Linda  had me do for her friend Julie.

Jack , Maverick + Caine
50 x 60cms framed Oil

After seeing how well this portrait was received Carole decided to have me create a portrait as a secret gift to give to one of her friends.Heres it is



Rex , Kina ,Candy , Maverick + Rolly
30 x 40cms
Oil on gallery wrap canvas
Several of these dogs were posthumous portraits with very blurry photos.

Her friend loved the portrait and Carole finally decided it was time to get one for herself. She is a dog trainer and runs a security business with dogs so she has 12  ( living + posthumous) dogs we are painting.We decide that 4 paintings 3 up were the way to go. Here is the first.

Rex , Hawk + Grizzly
 35 x 70cms
Oil on gallery wrap canvas

The photo of Rex was very blurry and had a black blob for his nose.You couldn't see the shape or anything.Lucky I have years of painting dogs under my belt! I had to average out each portrait as if I had detailed the ones with sharp photos more than the ones with blurry ones it would have looked silly .

I'm just starting on the next portrait. We were concentrating on painting the posthumous portraits first but Carole was devastated when Liz one of Caroles miniature Schnuazers got a tick last week and died.I 've since been out and taken good photos of all the 'living 'dogs so that if anything horrible happens at least we have good photos for their portraits!
We don't have any good sharp photos of Liz so I am going to use a sharp photo of Emma ( similar dog) but customise it buy changing the colour etc so it will look like Liz..
I'll keep you posted!

duck tales

 Driving home on Wednesday  there was a big flock of birds on the road. and as I got closer most flew away .I realised they were ducks and one had been hit with the others being moral support.
I pulled over as the one hit was in shock and wouldn't have lasted long in the middle of the road.I had to go a few hundred yards to find somewhere safe to pull over and there was another car coming . As I got out  I signalled for them to slow down and pointed at the duck.They pulled over closer to the duck and got out to go to it.

Meanwhile another car was coming so I signalled to slow down and pointed at the duck.The car didn't slow down but straddled the duck and drove over the top of it. Luckily the duck kept its head down and survived but it would have been traumatised.The other driver closer to it went to help  it but it managed to fly off to safety.

I yelled out 'thanks' to the other driver ( a woman). She was fuming and yelled ' SOME PEOPLE!!!?"

I wasn't very impressed and had given the culprit a dirty look as he drove past. Oh well at least there was a happy ending.

Something a bit different!

Here's one of my secret Xmas commissions - something a bit different.Lucky we used to own yachts as the reference photo was so blurry you couldn't see much of anything.

Orac
30 x 40cms
Gallery wrap canvas

'Thanks so much for painting our boat. What a fabulous surprise and the perfect present! – well done.'

Steve

We had a photo of the type of boat sailing but had to customise it to look like Orac so I needed additional reference photos taken .When I asked him if he suspected anything with all the extra photo's his wife was taking of the boat he said-

"Totally oblivious. Didn’t even occur to me there was anything happening.

Thanks again Sue. Very happy with the painting."

Hide & seek

Thought I'd post some previous portraits for a bit of variety.This one was to be the second secret portrait I did as a present Vanessa's father.He drove carriage horses in the vineyards and I had to go and get photos of them on the day he was working without him seeing me and his workmate who was helping me.
We drove out to the vineyards . Several times we had to quickly drive into a carpark and park behind some bushes to avoid being seen as he drove a carriage out from where the horses were kept.
 Exciting spy stuff! LOL"s.
We finally got to where the horses were kept.It was to be a long portrait with six Clysdale heads . I took 300 photos of the different horses then his workmate said " Look he really loves this old bugger Boss.We had to retire him as he used to kick carriages apart and run off which wasn't good for custom but he's a character and looks great when you call him over."
I said " Ok lets call him over! ". I took 8 photos on multishot and we decided that one of Boss would be the way to go with the portrait.
Meanwhile the father drove back in.I thought quickly ,as he knew me from the earlier portrait he'd been given, and said " I've got an exhibition coming up in Feb and I needed photos of Clysdales so I'm here getting reference photos for it ."
Amazingly he fell for it and got a big teary suprise when he received the portrait of Boss for Xmas!

Boss
 60 x 70cms image size Oil
This is what Vanessa said when she got the potrait ready to give to him.

" LOVE IT !!!!!!!!!! You're a genius!!!! It will bring tears again!!! Thank you soooo much - it'll make his day. Actually he hasn't stopped talking about the Whoopi & Buster painting - but this will blow him away.

Made my day !

Vanessa

Getting there but still not finished

I notice the background colour looks different in the latest.It shouldn't as I haven't changed it so the camera colours have changed a bit.The camera exaggerates the blues in her clothes so I went into a photo editing program & treid to match the colour blue/purple but it must altered the background colours.