The goal in finding the perfect reference photo for your Pet Portrait painting is simple: It should accurately represent your pet how you see them & will remember them! 🙂

My Pet Portrait paintings are based on client’s very own photos, and I strive to accurately capture the essence & personality of the pet to the best of my abilities – so this means, understandably, that the photo selection process is a very important one!! Since I do literally paint the pose in the reference photo that is selected, it is important to consider the following points when picking it out:

Does it accurately reflect the personality, pose or facial expression of your pet?

Is the colour true to life?

Is the photo clear/crisp with as much detail in it as possible?

Are you sending the photo in the largest possible version?

That is the “nutshell” version of course, lol. And here is some more in depth info (including a couple of reference photo examples further down)…

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Look what Bea’s mom emailed over to me as soon as her painting package arrived!!! LOVE IT.

This pic was taken in on a very cool tufted chair in Beatrix’s mom’s shoppe, where she gets to go into work with her mom all the time 🙂 . If you are in the Victoria BC area, be sure to check out Mille Fiori Spa, and say ‘hi’ to Beatrix & her momma!

You must see the eyelashes on this adorable little Brussels Griffon dog! They go on for days and days and days lol. When Beatrix’s mom and I were chatting about doing a painting of her, she wanted to make sure I feature her extra long lashes. And let’s be honest, how could I not? …Just look at them!! So cute 😀

Here is a 50/50 Split Pic of Beatrix the lil Griff (with the original photo on the left, and the finished painting on the right):

left side: original photo / right side: finished painting

When Bea’s mom sent over some pictures for me to look at I immediately fell for this sweet little pose of her poking out from behind the fabric of a chair. So for the painting we went with a full body shot with a detailed background, vs doing a headshot against a solid colour. Both would have definitely worked very well, but I felt this whole shot in particular just had so much character & cuteness it had to be documented lol.

To view the full finished painting, it can be seen in my Pet Portrait portfolio gallery. What do you think about painting the whole body & background instead of just a headshot?

Last week I got to deliver a painting that I did of a very cool 1956 Buick Special classic car, and while there I took advantage of some unique photo ops of the piece with the car itself!!

Needless to say I took lots of pix lol, and I couldn’t quite narrow it down to just one as my fave, so am sharing my top four 😀 :

(On the front bumper) – I LOVE all the chrome & curvatures!

(on the rear seat) – The piping and upholstery in those old cars are just so cool.

(next to trunk detailing) – I love whatever this thing is called haha! I don’t know car terms very well 😀

(next to side detailing) – Painting this “Special” text life-sized would have been a breeze vs the itty bitty version in the painting haha.

Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure these are officially my first car doppelgänger pix, which is exciting! So it can be added to my list along with Animal Doppelgänger, and Minimalist Portrait doppelgängers. Oh! And I almost forgot about my one and only Cabin doppelgänger that I posted on Instagram before lol. What can I say, I love seeing pictures of my paintings next to their real life counterparts :p .

To view a full photo of this car painting, it can be seen in my Classic Car portfolio gallery. Do you have a car that you adore and would like an artistic painting of it done? Get in touch and I’d be happy to help of course 🙂

I’m going to be totally honest with you, it’s been a little bit nutty in my studio lately preparing for the Christmas rush lol (Yep, it’s true!! Already. So soon!). Sooo while I do have a lot to catch up on blog post wise, I do have lots of fun new things to share with you shortly which is exciting! But first, as promised in my last post, here are pictures of my newest Mixed Media pieces that I completed last week:

‘Viewpoint’

‘Rusted Perspective’

‘Blossoms Through the Concrete’

These are 8″x8″ each painted on Russian Birch Panel, and believe it or not – all of them incorporate imagery from the Castlegar area! I have made many o’ road trips between Calgary & the Kootenays over the years, and every time I take pictures along the way. So I really love working on this new Mixed Media series, because I get to utilize some of these pictures in this fun new style. For instance – two of these pieces feature images I took at the viewpoint on the way out of town overlooking the city, and one shows a side view of the Brilliant Bridge when coming into town. Although it’s not necessary to know where exactly the images are from to get the full effect of the paintings, for those folks familiar with the area (or for those who are simply curious) I thought it’d be neat to share 😉 .

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to get in touch – I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Guess what? I have some exciting news to share 🙂 :

“I now have a new art display set up at the Fireside Inn in Castlegar BC!”

That place sure does sound familiar, you say? -You are correct! We teamed up in the summer during the Castlegar Art Walk, and then they were kind enough to invite me back after – Woop woop!! So this weekend I got to install a new art display there, which means that six 8″x8″ mixed media paintings featuring local imagery (including 3 brand new pieces!) are on display & available for purchase. If you are in the area and would like to pop in to take a peek, please feel free – the staff is extremely friendly! (A link with a map is available on my ‘Showings‘ page.)

As for my next post… I suppose it’s fitting to share closer up pix of these new pieces I speak of, lol!! Coming your way very soon 😀

( Updated Nov 3rd: IMPORTANT INFO AT BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG POST! )

It may be hard to believe because it’s only early October, BUT… Christmas orders are already in full swing!! It’s true! And, the holiday season definitely sneaks up in a hurry, so I’d like to share some important information below at this time 🙂 :

The deadline to order Pet Portrait paintings as Christmas gifts is November 8th 2013. Ordering by this date ensures that you will receive your piece before December 20th. 

AND – I would also like to share that in the spirit of the giving season:

10% FROM EACH PET PORTRAIT XMAS ORDER GOES RIGHT TO AN ANIMAL RESCUE SOCIETY!!!

While I’ve called Calgary home my whole adult life, I was born & raised in BC and will always consider it my home as well. Since both places are important to me and are such a big parts of my life, I have selected one animal rescue society from each to donate to this holiday season. And here is some info on them:

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Earlier this month I was contacted about painting a Minimalist Portrait as a gift for a boyfriend to give his girlfriend for her birthday. He sent over a picture that they took on a trip to Banff, and I got paintin’!

For those who aren’t familiar yet with this particular series – in a nutshell: from a photo I draw a portrait with contour lines and colour blocking while only using black and white (so no grey tones or shading, etc) then add in a fun colour background for contrast, and boom we get a contemporary “pop art” style piece.

I get to share the finished painting with you now because today is her birthday, yay! So here is Lyndsey & Michael’s finished custom portrait:

I’ve done various paintings as birthday gifts for folks over the years, but this is my first one as a couples portrait which I thought was super cute! Also in the firsts department:
– largest Minimalist Portrait to date, measuring in at 11″x14″.
– first teal background (…ya I know, that’s not really a huge first… BUT it’s my favourite colour so I was excited! haha!).

If you would like further information on my Minimalist Portrait series, or would like to custom order one for yourself or as a gift, please feel free to leave a comment below or get in touch, and I’d be happy to help 🙂

A couple days ago when I revealed Maggie‘s painting, I mentioned a second Pet Portrait for this week… And here it is! Lacey‘s painting was a birthday gift given between friends earlier in the week, AND this is actually my first painting of a standard poodle! Which I’m really excited about, and I’m also super happy with how the fur turned out too. It was a different technique than my usual, so was fun to tinker to get a more ‘fluffy‘ result for this particular one.

Here is a 50/50 split pic of Lacey – on the upper left we have the reference photo, & on the lower right is the finished painting:

It wasn’t that long ago that I did my very first purple background (remember “Sasha“?) out of over 50 portraits to date, and only a matter of weeks later here’s Lacey ordered with her mom’s favourite colour as the background! Such a regal and sassy colour. Love it.

Here are a few detail shots from Lacey’s portrait:

To view the full painting image, please visit my Pet Portrait portfolio gallery.