Gallery
Jodie & Lilly, the Patterdale Terriers
After winning the Crufts Kennel Club Portrait Competition, Janet brought her two Patterdale Terriers to the studio for me to take the photographs. Lilly, 6 months and Jodie, 4 years are the best of friends and love playing together. In order to get the best expressions I took photos individually and together we selected the best ones for the portrait. When they came to collect, Janet was really impressed with the finished painting, ‘its like they will jump out of the picture, you have their characters perfectly…Lilly (left) all inquisitive and Jodie (right) in anticipation of what will happen next.
Watch the Painting Come to Life
Cross-breed Dog Trio
Jackie runs a local dog training club and also owns many dogs. Over the years, I have painted most of them! There is a gallery wall of portraits of her beloved pets in her house. During the photo shoot, we chose three photos of these beautiful litter siblings. It was a pleasure to paint the bronze colouring of these cross-breeds.
Boo & Ralph, the Border Collie and Terrier
I was there when Boo (left) was born. In the middle of the night, my Border Collie, Woflie, had three puppies. The first to be born was Boo! When she was eight weeks old, Boo went to live with a friend's dog named Ralph, the terrier, in the next village. This portrait was given as a special present when Boo was approximately four years old.
Clemantine, the English Setter
Clematine, the English Setter, lives in rural France. During a visit to the farm, to complete the photo shoot of this Setter dog, I worked from the perfect photo that captured the character and energy of this breed. It was a joy to paint from this lovely photograph.
Chester, the Horse
Generally speaking, I would choose to just paint the horse's head. Therefore, it is important to use a close-up photograph of the head and neck to get the best results. Decide whether or not you would like the head collar painted or not.
Coco & Portia, the Cesky Terriers
I took the photographs of these two Cesky Terriers during my exhibition at Burghley Horse Trials. The client wanted a full body pose of both dogs sitting. I changed the backgrounds from the photos to one of general outdoor greenery in which to set the dogs for the painting. After arranging an appointment for collection, the portrait was picked up from the studio and they were absolutely delighted with the results.
Husky
I photographed this beautiful Husky at the studio. Taking care during the painting to portray the crisp clean lines of the fur and bright eyes, one blue and one brown.
Cassie, the Palomino Horse
After having her dogs painted last year, Dawn decided to have a horse portrait commissioned for her Mum as a Christmas present. After taking the photographs and choosing her favourite pose, Dawn used a payment plan to spread the cost of her portrait over a few months.
Watch the Painting Come to Life
Lilly, the English Pointer
This is a great photograph of Lilly; however the customer didn't want the head collar shown in the portrait. Christine was able to remove it from the finished portrait by request and the customer was very pleased with the end result.
German Wire-haired Pointer
I travelled down to Worcestershire on one of my regular photo-shoot trips to take photos of this German Wire-haired Pointer. After taking a selection of photographs the client chose the most typical expression for the portrait.
Great Dane
I took these photographs during my exhibition at Belton Horse Trials. Dianne couldn’t decide which side of her Great Dane’s magnificent head to paint, so we decided to have a portrait showing both sides of the head in order to see the different markings. She was extremely pleased with the result.