Mo - Great Pyrenees Pastel Pet Portrait - SOLD

A Great Pyrenees is the closest a dog comes to resembling a polar bear -- they are gentle giants, truly wonderful dogs. In my photo reference, Mo is in shadow, but I tried to create a light pattern to make him more interesting. Also, sometimes it is difficult to paint an all white or all black dog using interesting color without getting garish. In real life he is more creamy in color, but this still looks like Mo.

Scottie - 18" x 24" Pastel

Usually I think this size lends itself to more of a head and shoulders portrait. Doing the whole body in this format means the head is quite small. But this painting was about the cute pose and light falling on the figure, anyway. This is my son Scott years ago; he is now 14.

Lana No. 2 - Viszla - 9.5" x 12.5" Pastel - SOLD

Another painting of my friend's beautiful viszla, Lana. I took a bunch of pictures of her back in June, and this one in particular really showed her stunning coppery coat when lit by the sun.

No. 48 - WIP (Portrait of Scott)

Doing portraits of people as a business freaks me out a little, because getting a likeness with a person is a lot more challenging than nailing it with a dog or cat. In this case, I did get a good likeness -- what remains is to work a bit more on the face, the clothes, and the dreaded hand.

Summer Memories - Pastel 16" x 20"

I worked on this forever!!! I started it back in January, and it sat for a long time; with a recent purchase inquiry, I resolved to finish it. Believe it or not, I redid the foreground and background three or four times -- it almost got to the point where I thought I might have to scrap it, but I prevailed in the end.

A Fun Project

My niece Marisa is getting married next summer at the New York Botanical Gardens in Bronx, N.Y.  I did this little project for her.

Working in watercolors made it a special challenge. I never used that medium before ... gives me lots of respect for watercolor artists!

Now that I look at it, I wish I had made the cloud on the right less stark. Oh well, they love it and that's all that counts.

Gone Fishin" - NFS

I have been missing in action for six weeks, which makes this an apt painting for my return. Except I wasn't fishing. More like end of summer madness, with a new college freshman to move to school, a husband and a dog who needed surgery, etc. etc. Well, I'm back at my easel, and that's what counts.

Girlfriends - 14" x 19" Pastel

Posting an older painting as I work on completing some long overdue projects. The subject is my daughter and her friend from middle school. I have always liked the charming architectural details of this particular school building (Bell Middle School, Chappaqua NY)
.

The Old City (Jerusalem, Israel)

An older painting that I did using a reference photo from the Wet Canvas image library. I have never been to Israel, but I found this photo intriguing and enjoyed painting it.

Debbie's Garden - 18" x 26" Pastel

An older painting from a friend's beautiful garden. She studied and became a master gardener, and all her efforts were spent perfecting the landscape around her grand estate. Her hard work resulted in a gorgeous landscape, with lovely views at every turn.
This was the first time I painted a landscape on a deep red paper; I like how it shows through and contrasts with the greens.

The Shore - 18" x 24" Pastel

Today I'm posting an older painting, while I work on my niece's wedding project. This was one of my first "landscape" paintings, done on Sabertooth paper -- a paper so rough that I haven't used it since. Looking back, I see lots of things I would do differently; but this painting reminds me of one of my favorite beaches, and for that reason, I still like it.

By the way, the photo isn't as dark in real life.

Three Labs (Louie, Brownie and Tiger) - 16" x 20" Pastel - SOLD

Done... I hope their owner likes it!

Three Labs (Louie, Brownie and Tiger) - WIP

Almost done...will look at it tomorrow with fresh eyes.

Three Labs (Louie, Brownie, and Tiger) - WIP

Going slowly, as I try to keep the long,late afternoon shadows and warm light on each of these labs, and also try to get a likeness on each one...to be continued

Dana - 15" x 18" Pastel

I enjoyed painting this, and while I still see some things I might have done differently, I am going to leave it as is.

Dana - WIP

I have painted people many times, but after umpteen dogs I am trying my hand at portraiture again; it isn't as easy as I had remembered. I decided to paint my daughter. She's 18 now; tempis fugit!

Curiosity (Vizsla and Butterfly) - 13" x 18" Pastel

OK, I could see how some people would think this is a bit too sweet. But I had fun doing it anyway.

Since the initial layout, I moved the foliage and the rocks around to come up with a more pleasing composition, and rubbed the pastel into the paper (with a styrofoam packing peanut, which is a good tool for this), for a less textured look.

Curiosity (Vizsla and Butterfly) - WIP

Started this today purely for fun. Had an idea in my head and had to get it on paper. After I sketched it out, I realized that it reminded me of a painting my dad did roughly 45 years ago -- purely a coincidence, I think.
I did this on a leftover piece of Art Spectrum Colorfix, and I forgot how textured and grainy it is. As I work on finishing this piece, I will rub some of the color into the paper in certain areas, to reduce the spots of paper showing through, which I think is a little distracting.

German Shorthaired Pointer - 11" x 14" Pastel - SOLD

This commission was harder than I thought! The challenge was to paint a GSP with a solid brown head and ticked body -- And while I needed to add highlights to give the head dimension, I needed to do that without making the head look "ticked" (spotted). Also painted a different style of background than my usual. The client loved it.

"Boy", a German Shepherd - 12" x 16" Pastel - SOLD

I was given this photo of a beloved German Shepherd to paint. According to his owner, Boy was big and strong, but deceptively gentle. Folks would be frightened by his looks, and he in turn was terrified of lightening.
This project presented a challenge. This was the only picture of Boy that I had as reference, and because of the indoor lighting and flash, it was less than ideal. Still, you could see his features and coloring pretty well, so I did my best--and upon seeing it, the owner remarked, "that looks just like Boy!".