Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

Welcome to my blog. I thought I'd be a little different to most other 'pet portrait artist bloggers' in that I would let you see my daily to-ings and fro-ings rather than just a blow by blow account of my artist efforts. Plus I think I have a wonderful home life with lots of pets which someone else may find as interesting and charming as I do. Please rest assured that no animals were injured in the process of making this blog. I am so lucky to be able to keep these pets, none of which end up in a pot, they really are pets, but I am sure someone somewhere would love to know about their quirky personalities and oddball natures as much as I do. We have several days of discussions when naming a new arrival, we have to study each pet to see which name tag suits them, it's a hard life you know. See our Elvis, the golden appenzeller, he had such a cocky little personailty and was such a pretty boy that nothing else would do except being named after the King himself. Sid our gander was a bit of a double whammy as he was initally very vicious and also hissed until he got to know us better, he still has off days!!!
I hope you enjoy meeting my extended family, I shall of course involve you in my arty side but as far as I'm concerned my animals come first, last and in the middle (I am quite mad!) So happy browsing, and leave any comments as you see fit, I'll pass them onto my feathered and furry friends of course.
We let all of our geese out yesterday together for the first time since the breeding season. Geese need grass for their digestion and when they are shut up for breeding we throw them handfuls of grass each time we pass their pen for them to enjoy.

As it was such a nice day, all of our feathered and furry friends had a day out, it rained until after lunch so my rabbits had to stay in until then but then they spent the afternoon in the sunshine and I've neglected all of my pet portraits I have to do, it was too nice to work. See all the pet portraits work I should be doing!!!

Our indian runner ducks at the watering hole!! These were bought as eggs from ebay by a man we used to work with, we hatched them for him and he took them to live near Catbrook. Mark then decided he was going to move to Australia so we had them back to live with us, he never made it to Australia but he's not having his ducks back!

These are our young khaki campbell ducks, we bought these from Ross bird sale to go with a drake we had been given all the way from near Skegness!!! They are still only babies at the moment.

As you can see our spaniel Zac takes everything in his stride, he's a gentle old soul who just lets the birds wander by - see him featured several times as pet portraits on my website. Today he was savaged by Sid the embden gander up against a fence, Sid usually ignores Zac but as we had let all the other geese out he felt he had to show authority and set upon several of them as well, I chased Sid around the lawn as he was hanging from the tail feathers of a toulouse gander and Zac barged through the middle thus splitting them up only to receive a peck himself. Thankfully after being together all day the geese all settled down, this is the first time they have been let out together since before breeding so usually they all try to boss each other around until they find out who's in charge and it's usually Mildred the female goose!! See George and Mildred below

These are our cayuga ducks, as you can see they are in moult but the drake in the middle still has his feathers and this is how they should look.
Anyway, the day came to a close and it was time to put everything to bed, see the geese making their way to the shed below. As you can see they've all made friends now!!!
And finally....

...it was our rouen ducklings first day out. They are kept in the garage at the moment still under a heat lamp but as today was mild we put them on the grass and they loved it. We put a plant tray down filled with water and both had a splash about all afternoon. Both are in bed now, we need to think about names for these, I think it is a drake and a duck so if you have any ideas leave me a comment letting me know!!!
Goodnight from the feathered friends....until next time

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower (see bottom of page). If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. It costs nothing to enter, all you require is internet access.