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/




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.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Christmas isn't far away - hasn't the year flown?

If you have been trying to think of a gift that will make an impact and be treasured a portrait of a pet or loved one can bring generations  happy memories.

Portraits are much more alive, last longer and have more impact than a framed photo.
I can put back the emotional connection that a photo loses.

I'm taking Christmas portrait bookings at the moment and places are filling fast.Portraits take many weeks or even months to create so don't leave it too late to have your custom portrait created!

All you need do is email me with your ideas and send me your photos.If you are local I can come and take suitable ones. I can supply your portrait custom framed with your pets name on it ready to place under the tree ( or on the wall..lol's).

Sally - one from the archives

I've been creating a large oil portrait of  Jethro a great dane and he is taking a long time so I don't have any new portrait to show you.I thought I'd show you an earlier portrait of Sally.

Danielle contacted me to have a portrait created of Sally for her husband for Christmas. I went and took photos when he wasn't home and here is the portrait and what they thought of it.

 

Sally
30 x 40cms framed pastel

' It looks exactly like Sally with her big & bright eyes , big black nose
& her ear's very alert just like a Panda Bear.'.
You have amazing painting skills.

Danielle
"Jason loved it!"
Danielle