Portraits of Animals

Leo

January 5th, 2017

January 5th, 2017
Leo
Oil on Board, 9 x 12 in

My cat of 17.5 yrs has been very, very ill – and is probably very close to meeting his maker. While he was sleeping, I decided rather than just keeping vigil at his side & staring at him, perhaps I should paint him, from life, such as it is. He is a gorgeous cat but definitely looks bedraggled after about a week of not eating. That being said, I am amazed at his strength. He is not going gentle into that good night, and I thank God – and Leo – for that.

Penny

January 6th - 10th, 2015

January 6th – 10th, 2015
Penny
(nfs)
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in

This has been a fairly rough year so far – the most recent blow was the rather sudden demise of my beloved cat Penny. Her name is short for Pentecost, which I named her because she was all grey and black except for one big tongue of flame on her forehead. Painting her has been wonderful – a very fulfilling way to spend time thinking about her and our life together, to savor and celebrate her incredible beauty. I think I may tweak this here and there, but it’s basically done. I hope now that there’s a little routine & order to home life (and the care of my uncle at home in hospice) I will be able to get out and paint again soon.

March 6th, 2014

March 6th, 2014

March 6th, 2014
(nfs)

As you can see, I’m working from a photo, this is clearly not Plein Air. For various reasons, I haven’t been able to get out to paint in about three weeks. It’s been frustrating, but at the same time, I think I’m undergoing one of those metamorphoses I occasionally go through – hopefully from this dry spell I’ll emerge with a new perspective. In the meantime, I have been trying to finish Baxter. I can’t tell you how many hours I could spend on this, or how many I have, trying to get it just so. In another 5 hours I hope, maybe 8, I will be done. I haven’t worked on the feet yet, and there are a few adjustments I have to make to his eyes and face. I know he looks like a dog – but I want him to look EXACTLY like one very specific dog, and I don’t think he does yet.

A Dog Named Baxter

Last week of September, 2013

A Dog Named Baxter
Last week of September, 2013
Work in Progress

The weekend of the 27th I was in Maryland and DC, attending my 15 yr college reunion and visiting friends. The week leading up to it I was working on this, a portrait of a friend’s dog, RIP. It’s a bit of a challenge as a commission as the extant photos are not ideal – as you can see in the upper left, the photo shows his face in dark shadow, which just won’t do for a portrait. I’ve been extrapolating from other photos and pictures of similar dogs (Rhodesian Ridgebacks, liver nosed) to get a better handle on the dog’s coloring. It’s kind of nice to use a brush again, after all these years. Anyway as you can see, there’s still quite a bit of work to be done here.

Logan

June 18th & 19th, 2012

Logan
June 18th & 19th, 2012
Tewksbury, MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
(nfs)

I decided to try a new brush that I have while waiting for my knives to arrive. I also thought I might like to try painting a dog or cat, in real time, as a precursor to trying a live portrait sometime. I set everything up and followed the dogs to a spot they seemed liable to stay in for a while. I gave them each a long-chewing bone, which I figured would keep them immobile for at least an hour. I began to mix up my colors, and by the time I was ready to go, the dogs were choking down the last bits of their chews and off to examine the world. So I thought I’d try painting the grass, and wait for them to come back. Painting the grass with a brush wasn’t fun. I kept at it but kept failing. Then the dogs came back, and about 5 times, I got their bodies blocked in, about to inflict some detail, when they got up and left. Eventually it all got so frustrating, and the canvas so ugly, that I got angry and let fly – abandoning the brush and using an old knife, and using a dog picture I had on my phone for structure and the dogs themselves for colour and inference.

Buffy

Buffy

Buffy
2010
Ink on tinted paper