Welcome to my Blog

I'm a professional award winning Portrait artist from NSW Australia.

Not just a likeness- portraits with Life!
I bring your photos to life in paintings that will touch your heart!

A photo freezes a moment while a painting melts hearts.

Capture a moment in their life and
keep it alive in an Heirloom Portrait !

"Your portraits capture more life than a photo ever could!"
Vanessa.



Satisfaction Guarantee .

Have me create a special portrait just for you!.
Supply the photos and then plan the great unveiling!


I have original animal and landscape artworks available for sale on my website.

Learn more at my website-


https://www.suelinton.com.au/wordpress/




Thursday, December 27, 2012

Chief




Here's one of my secret Xmas portraits -
Chief
 40 x 50cms framed Oil
We started organising Chief 2 years ago but things got in the way and in the meantime he passed away. luckily one of the earlier photos we had taken was suitable to create a portrait from.
He was a present for the ladies husband. I haven't heard back from her yet but here is what she said when she first saw the portrait.
"It looks amazing!!!!!....THANKYOU!"


Thursday, December 20, 2012

My latest stockman painting

I'm creating this one for the exhibition in January.


As I usually do a detailed sketch and plan my commissions all the time I'm having a holiday with this one and diving straight in! That may cause problems later but at the moment I'm just enjoying putting paint on and the freedom of being able to just paint A horse & rider rather than THE horse & rider ! lol's




I'm not sure if everything is 'correct' - proportions etc - but I'll deal with that later if necessary.At the moment I just want to get it all covered so I can see how it is going overall. Then I'll come back and pull it all togther if necessary.



Next I'll do the middle riders horse then the front horse and rider and then go back and pull it all together and emphasise the bits I want most.

I will be exhibiting at Cessnock regional Gallery Jan 24th - Feb 24th 2013.

I will be exhibiting as a member of the Lower Hunter Art Trail.
Here are the details.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

In memory of Staff


Heres' the secret portrait I created of Staff the 16year old staffy who had to be put down the week after we took photos for her portrait.
The portrait was to be a secret Xmas gift from several staff for their boss Marshall but they gave her
 early after she was put down.We used an unsharp photo of her in her prime and I used the new photos I took for details to help me create the portrait.
 
 

 Staff
18 x 24cms framed pastel sketch
' We gave Marshall Staff today. He absolutely loved her. He was speechless, he cried and could not believe it. He is over the moon with his Xmas present. Thank you for making this happen!'
Candice
 

Marshall sent me this lovely email -  
Hi Sue,
 I am just writing to thank you for your amazing portrait of my old Staffie. Candice & the girls gave me this for Christmas.
The portrait is so full of her character, and is almost 3D!
Thank you again; it was and still is a very emotional picture and gift, I am totally blown away by what Candice has done, and your wonderful painting. You are very talented.
 Yours sincerely
 Marshall


Friday, December 14, 2012

You can buy prints from my original artworks from my Facebook page

If you haven't already check out my shop - Blue clover leaf icon to the left of the likes icon on this page top RHS.
You can have prints - framed or canvas prints , cards etc of many of my original artworks.
Click on the title of each work to see the different options. You can purchase there securely at Fine Art America and the artwork will be delivered to your door.

Go and have a look! Click on this link to go there direct.
Sue Linton shop

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Leo campdrafting



For Sale

This is one I've done for my exhibition. The reference photo is courtesy of WildFillies photography.
Campdraft 1
 30 x 40cms image size
Framed oil
 I wanted it to be colourful and fun but still look like the horse Leo who is a very versatile little horse who hacks , campdrafts and does dressage! I haven't gone to as much detail for a likeness of the rider as I would in a commissioned portrait.I just wanted the overall effect.

 
 The framed painting.


Here he is in the earlier stages.

 
Above -  I've done the general shapes and gone in and almost finished off Leo. I don't usually paint like that . I usually paint all the painting to the same level at once.
 
 
 I've painted the cow in roughly. The original cow was black but I wanted some extra colour so changed it to a Hereford.

 
 Here I've painted the rider and decided I wanted the cow to be a bit lighter.The finishing touches were to get a more accurate expression on Leo and adjust the background and dust and a few other little details.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Angela -This weeks 2.30hr practise portrait from a model

 
 
 
Angela
Oil on canvas
25 x 36cm
I'm quite happy with this one.I think it has captured some of her spirit.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Scary season ahead

Friday night-

Well we didn't need this..
 A dry thunderstorm came through with heaps of lightning strikes. I lusually love storms but I hate dry ones in this weather.
We heard a massive strike which seemed to be near the house. A bit later we were on the verandah watching the storm when my partner noticed a fire which seemed not far down the drive! Argh!!
 Panic stations..We're out racing around in the dark and luckily now light rain carrying buckets to it..
A tree had been hit and it had started a grass fire about 50' in diameter.. Cripes what good are a few buckets going to do! It was also 400m from the tap..Amazingly with a few buckets and a stick each to bash out the edges we got it mainly out..
I'd rung 000 and the fire brigade was on its way so I stood sodden in the drive to direct them.We had to make sure that everything was well and truly out as its supposed to be 41 degrees again tomorrow.
Umm thats a wakeup call. I've always thought the fire danger wopuld come from the Nw where the bush is. Lucky there wasn't any wind and we had a bit of drizzle or it could have been a lot worse.
 The neighbour drove over to see what was happening ( he saw it first and called 000) and he said he saw my partner coming down the drive with 2 buckets of water and thought ' thats not going to do much!'
 It shows how helpless you are really.On an acreage you don't really have any way of reaching most areas if you have a spot fire. Boy I'll be donating to the rural fire service next time they ask!
Mm I'm not going to like this summer. If it's damp enough tomorow am hopefully I can slash some of the grass in the paddock to reduce the risk. Lucky my back has just come good! Don't think I'll sleep much tonight..

Boy a real fire must be scary!
 Zeuss gave a big whinny out of the dark as I walked by.. maybe he knew something was amiss?

Sat -
We annoyed the neighbours with some early morning slashing..( just joking I emailed them to explain and I'm sure they will be happy - especially the ones closest to the fire who rang 000 1st!).
It's good in a way as I had never thought of exiting the place other than the driveway so now we'll have to consider bush exits and cut trees down that are blocking the gate. It also made me realise that if a big fire is coming and there are spot fires 1km ahead you'd have to leave really early as if it's 40 + degrees with tinder dry + wind it wouldn't take long to be blocked  in.

I'll also have to remember to grab my current portrait commissions and take them with me when I go!
 It makes you realise how insignificant humans are.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

The creation of Kiri

Kiri is the queen of the household. I have created many portraits of Sian's household of cats and Kiri is  about the 7th  or 8th portrait.
As befits a queen and favourite we have chosen a larger portrait. The rest have been 40 x 50cms image portraits while she is 50 x 60cms image size. She will be stunning when she is framed.
Kiri is a Maine Coone cat with a gorgeous white ruff , whispy tips on her ears , long whiskers and a big tail. She is enormous!
The photo we had was of her lying on Sian's suitcase. Sian goes away a lot and Kiri hates it.It's almost like she is trying not to let her go.
Although the pose was good we chose another nicer face and I put that on her portrait. I also enhanced her ruff and colour.
 
Here she is complete and I will also put up progressive photos so you can see how I painted her.
 
 
 
Finished
Kiri
71 x 81cms framed oil
 
 
I started with an acrylic underpainting and roughly covered the whole portrait. Her face wasn't accurate but that didn't matter as I fix that as I go along. When I had sent the sketch to Sian she asked me to make her paws larger as the photo made them look smaller than they are.They are fixed here.
 
 
 
Here I have started to use Oil paint on her coat but I haven't done any of the white part of the coat yet. This is the drab and ugly stage.
 
 
 
I quite like her here but she has to llok like Kiri so I had to add some darker bits. I've done a little bit of her white coat but it isn't finished.
 

 
 
Here she is about 85% finished. The final touches don't show up in photos especially if it's a large painting so the photo is taken from a distance. I decided I didn't like the blue background and asked Sian if I could change the colour of the suitcase as that would allow me to use colours that would better enhance Kiri.
 With her permission I did and I think the new colours are much more flattering ( below). Now was the time to put in her whiskers , make her ruff more 3 d and finish all the other little details
that bring her to life!
 
 Here she is again finished.
 
 

Friday, November 23, 2012

Having trouble finding a gift that's really special?

I haven't got much to show you at he moment as all my current portraits are secret Xmas gifts!
If you have a hard to buy for person who loves their animals a portait can really melt their heart. It's a great experience unveiling and seeing their reaction!
I have room for one or two small portraits for Christmas. The $350 framed pastel special makes a great momento of their special mate and comes ready to present.
Book now to avoid disappointment!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Order your own portrait blank cards for Christmas


 
 
 
You can now send a really personal card for Christmas. If you've had me create a portrait I'm now offering you the option of having your portrait on handmade blank cards like the photo ( your portrait on them of course!).
They come with envelopes ready to send.
As they are time consuming to create there is a minimum of 8 cards @ $5 each which will be $40 + postage. You can order more if you wish.
 
Contact me if you are interested.
The deadline for orders is the first week of December but obviously the earlier you get your cards the sooner you can send them out!
General cards of my original artworks available too!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Not the best afternoon..lol's


When I'm not doing my art my greatest passion is sailboarding. I started sailboarding back in 1984 and when I was younger and really fit used to sail in the surf. Now I just sail on the lakes as I don't think I would handle getting pummelled by waves.

I had an "interesting sail"  last night. I rigged up and set out and decided I'd go for a jump when I saw a suitable wave about 100m out. I launched off the ramp and then had a massive stack with whiplash. Not good. I've had a few bad whiplash stacks lately as I've been trying to improve my jumping and been making mistakes learning.
 
A bit like this except the rig kept going and I wasn't hooked in.

 Anyway I surfaced and saw my board disappearing downwind at a great rate of knots  and my rig in the water next to me. I hadn't checked they were put together securely and they had popped apart midair. Watchers later told me it was quite spectacular as the rig started to go up and then kept going while I stacked..

 I swam flatout for about 100' trying to catch the board but it was facing down the waves and flying..grr.I went back to get my rig which was semi submerged and in the same spot.

 Another sailor went flying past and I waved and yelled and pointed at my boards that was rapidly disappearing into the distance. He didn't see me on the way out but on the way back he did but then promptly fell in and had issues of his own restarting.

He eventually got going again and got into shore and flagged down a speedboat that was being launched at the ramp. The people on the boat kindly gave the him a lift and they went looking for my board. They came back a while later and said it had drifter / sailed about 5kms ! It was also hard to find as it's blue ( on blue water).

 Meanwhile I started dragging my heavy 'sea anchor ' of a rig into shore. It took me about 3/4hr of swimming. Lucky it happened only 100m out as I usually sail c 6kms from the point over to the other side!

Anyway all turned out well - no damage to anyone and I provided some amusement. I noticed when I took my prescription sunnies off that I was missing a lens..Argh!! Lucky for me it had just dropped out onto the ground and not fallen out in the lake! I'll have to get them fixed today.

 I rigged smaller as the wind had come in and went out again and the wind died. I can't stand on the board and pull the sail out of the water as its small and would sink. I have to waterstart which means lie on my back in the water and push the sail up into the air so the wind  fills the sail and pull me up onto the board. If there isn't enough wind you are stuck and have to swim in.. Luckily I finally got going but decided enough was enough.. Glad  I don't have days like that very often!
Better times are more like this!





Friday, November 2, 2012

Nov 1st afternoon..

I tried to add these to the end of the other post but it wouldn't let me..This is that lovely yellow light you get after a storm has passed and the sun comes back out. Unfortunately we didn't get any rain as we desperately need some!





Thursday, November 1, 2012

Don't put your photos straight from your mobile or camera onto FB read here for some tips.

Important tip!

I often get people contacting me wanting a portrait and the only photos they have are from Facebook and the quality isn't good enough to paint from..They take the photos on their camera or phone and then upload them to Facebook.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure Facebook automatically reduces the size / quality of any photos when you put them up so they take less time to...

load and also because thats' the way it's set up.
Often the horse or pet has passed away and thats' the only photos they have and I have to tell them we can't do a portrait + they don't have any decent photos of their animal because as soon as you enlarge the photos the eyes are blurry etc.

TIP - Before you put the photos onto your computer make a folder up and name it -original and your pets name and date e.g -original Rusty 1 -10 - 2012 .You can then download your photos from the camera to your computer and put the photos in this folder.
When you download to the computer make sure that the camera doesn't automatically make them smaller and doesn't erase them afterwards. Keep a copy on the camera until your finished.

Do not do anything with these photos!!.
They are your original / master copy.
Make a copy of that folder on your computer.Now you can upload the photos in this copied folder to Facebook , edit them etc . Make sure you give the copied folder another name so you don't accidently change the master ones -e.g - Fb photos of Red 1 - 10 -2012
Once all this is done you can erase them off the camera if you wish.
This way you will always have some nice quality /sharper photos to show people and if you ever want a portrait I can create one even after your pet has gone!

 

Sue Linton artist PS - when you take photos with your device make sure you have it set to max megapixels + quality.10megapixels + is best especially for a horse & rider shot as then when you crop it for a closer view it stands a chance of being sharp.
 

 


This morning Nov 1st

I have to admit I don't usually get to see the sunrise as I sleep in a bit longer ..insert embarassed face icon..lol's
It's a pity really as the view is lovely of a morning. Out of the bedroom window.






 
Notice the roos in the foreground..

Jethro

Lorraine contacted me wanting a secret portrait of Jethro created for her husband..The original photos didn't do Jethro justice so she ended up telling her husband about the idea as he was the one who could take decent photos!
He took some more suitable sharper photos and we chose one of Jethroe looking regal in the grass setting.
As he is a big dog with long legs I suggested we go with the next size up from Lorraine's first choice for a larger portrait so his face would be a decent size and the portrait would have impact.
After many months here he is
                                                                           Jethro
                                                          52 x 85 cms image size
                                                                      Framed Oil

 
This shows the size of the portrait and framing.
 
 
 
'Jethro arrived safe and sound and is hanging in our entry. The painting is absolutely magnificent. Love it. Thanks so much for all your hard work. It was worth it to us!'
Lorraine & Steve
 
Detail
Portraits created and delivered for clients worldwide.
Satisfaction Guarantee
Just email through your photos!
Sue Linton artist
 

Sunday, October 28, 2012

An unusual view

We had some trees removed today. We have a line of trees between the house and studio and the large ones are a worry in big winds. Some are 70' tall and one came down in the big storm in 2007 just behind the house.
 Here are a few pics of the view from the top of the tree and the tree lopper.

The easy bit at the bottom - those rounds were frighteningly heavy when they fell ! This one always threatened to drop big limbs on the studio in big winds so i'll feel safer now.



Great view but you can keep this job! It would keep you fit!



This is where the next photo is taken from..a bird's eye view...



A different perspective of the view! The mountains are larger than they appear here.It's a wideangle panorama.The dam is near the house and if you look closely the little pink thing in the middle of this side of the dam is me!


Ground view of the same dam.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Some more pics of me on Zeuss - still trying to get that perfect shot

Seeing I can't show you what I am painting at the moment I thought I'd show some more photos of me on Zeuss.
Still trying to get the perfect photo.We used to be a lot softer but as I only ride him 20mins a week these days he is a bit less relaxed than usual .

I was using a bit more hand than usual to get him to look nice for the photos .He also stresses a bit and flaps his lower lip.I'll post a few stressy ones at the end.








I think he was thinking of spooking at something in this one..Makes him look nice though..lol's. I'm going to ride him today for the first time in 10 days..He went better than on the day of the photoshoot! There was a goanna wandering around . Lucky he knows them.We went and stood under the tree trunk it was climbing up..lol's.
 Last time when we did the photoshoot there was a feral deer down at the arena. The first time he saw the deers he freaked but now they are his friends ( thank goodness or I wouldn't have enjoyed being on his back! ).



Here are some stressier photos..




His lower lip is flapping away here..He was great today nice and soft and relaxed.



I'm using a bit more hand today.I usually warm him up & then get into it but the camera was out so I was trying to get results quicker..

Here he is when I used to ride him before I bought him in  1999.This is ready for the Morpeth medicine trailride. There used to be a bloke who would provide a whole lot of horses for people to ride..Some of the horses + gear was a bit dodgy..lol's.Zeuss was one of the good ones.





 When we first started.. We've come a long way!
He always had a great temperament and is intelligent and sensitive. When I first got him he was hard to pull up ( never been properly broken in) and would only walk or canter. He had a really uncomfortable trot so everyone used to just make him go straight into a canter. Now he has a lovely trot.He also used to stumble really badly down onto his knees.
 I was worried he was a wobbler ( they fall down and are dangerous) so I had him vet checked when I had him on trial before I bought him .He didn't lunge at the time so I ran around in a circle leading him and fell head over heels.The vet laughed & said the horse isn't a wobbler but the owner is! lol's..
He used to buck me off a lot.Once again because he was never properly broken in.Someone jabbed him with sharp spurs when he was a 2 year old.He is a very free moving horse but the rider forgot which horse he was on and used spurs on him. Z did a bronc act. As he is so sensitive for ages after if you grabbed a bit with your legs ( if he stumbled etc) or even brushed his sides he'd freak and buck..
I did a lot of desensitising ground work and the dressage has been great as now he understands leg aids means something and I'm not out to get him. We get along pretty well these days. I'm proud of how far we've come.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Some tips to keep your photos good quality

Important tip!

I often get people contacting me wanting a portrait and the only photos they have are from Facebook and the quality isn't good enough to paint from..They take the photos on their camera or phone and then upload them to Facebook.
 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure Facebook automatically reduces the size / quality of any photos when you put them up so they take less time to load and also because thats' the way it's set up.
Often the horse or pet has passed away and thats' the only photos they have and I have to tell them we can't do a portrait + they don't have any decent photos of their animal because as soon as you enlarge the photos the eyes are blurry etc.

TIP - Before you put the photos onto your computer make a folder up and name it -original and your pets name and date e.g -original Rusty 1 -10 - 2012 .You can then download your photos from the camera to your computer and put the photos in this folder.
When you download to the computer make sure that the camera doesn't automatically make them smaller and doesn't erase them afterwards. Keep a copy on the camera until your finished.

Do not do anything with these photos!!.
They are your original / master copy.

Make a copy of that folder on your computer.Now you can upload the photos in this copied folder to Facebook , edit them etc . Make sure you give the copied folder another name so you don't accidently change the master ones -e.g - Fb photos of Red 1 - 10 -2012
Once all this is done you can erase them off the camera if you wish.

 This way you will always have decent quality photos of your animals and if you want a portrait created at some time - even after your pet has gone - we can do a great portrait.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Goanna & Ducks

We've had several generations of wild ducks grow up on our place. This spring we've had 2 lots one 11 one lot of 2. It always seems to be the woodducks that succeed.
We have some tame black ducks but they always have their ducklings too late in ther season. They need to have them early before it gets too hot and the goanna comes around. I always thought that if they had a next in the dam on floating weed they'd be safe but it appears even that isn't so.
The Goanna was around this morning swimming in the dam and crawling around the edges.


He was swimming when I saw him but by the time I got the camera he was patrolling the edges watched on by nervous ducks.


These are our latest lot of wood ducks. They are almost at the flying stage so they are fairly safe but they looked a bit nervous.


This one shows his size better. The ducks in the photo are the black ducks who have never got the timing right to get a brood to survive him. If they have ducklings when it's cool he's still 'hibernating?' He disappears in winter. He eats the egss or small ducklings.