Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

Just a quick update. I think I shall be putting this one aside for a while as I have a few commissions I need to get done so say goodbye to this snow leopard for a while!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

Currently I'm still waiting for a cat photo of Lucky but in the meantime Bramble has appeared on my 'to do' list (top right column) plus I've also done a bit of 'me art' in the form of the snow leopard shown above.

The leg looks stightly out of kilter but the leopard is climbing upwards and hopefully when I complete more of the painting it will begin to make sense!!!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Yet more snow, in a few hours we were snowed in and cut off from the world again...hooray!

As you can see the dogs still want to be outside playing and luckily for Willow, her thick coat means she is totally ignorant to how cold snow actually is!

Zac on the other hand prefers to stay a little dryer, but he's such a pretty boy, it would be a shame if he got too messy!

What a poser he is!

And then he investigates the igloos made by the bamboo bent over with snow, he found a network of these tunnels, we do have quite a few bamboo areas, I really think it's more like a plantation and he had hours of fun mooching about underneath them all!

And just a bit of info, this is the bottom of our garden, we are one step away from the wood, if you follow the little path down it leads to places such as Dancing Green, Kettle Bottom, Hoovers Lane, Watery Lane and Hope Mansell to name but a few of the quirky places we live near!

I've sorted out a new piece of wildlife art to start but I'm holding out for the cat photos to arrive before I get stuck in!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

Well I think I'm almost finished, there are probably a few things I will rework and a few minor adjustments to make, just little things that only I will know have been done. I'll stare at it for a day or so and make the little amendments and then resist the temptation to do too much.

The weather has taken a turn for the worse, on Thursday we suffered yet another 'snowstorm' and our lane was impassable but then an artic lorry was directed towards us (ever so slightly off course) and it jack-knifed in the snow blocking any access whatsoever. My other half always wants a sat nav and we do travel about quite a bit, but I'm pretty good at map reading and have to drive because of travel sickness but we always get there in the end. I think sat navs are not very helpful around the local areas as most are narrow lanes meaning every week some little lane is blocked by too large a vehicle!

Anyway, I'm sure you've all noticed the changes to my blog and website but I had a mad moment and decided it had to be done, hopefully this will be my last major overhaul for quite some time but I'm sure I'll add bits and pieces as time goes by just to keep things fresh. 

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Just a little update on Ruby's dog portrait, her neck will continue down past the collar so still a way to go yet! It was also a very nice day today so we all played outside in the garden before the rugby started (Six Nations) and Ronnie has been arranging his shed to take delivery of his valentine's present.... a tractor! I brokered the deal for him and he is buying me a new lens for my camera so both of us are very pleased with ourselves at the moment!
If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Just a bit of an update on Ruby's dog portrait. I can see areas where I need to darken up the fur but there is still much to be done before the shadows and highlights are complete.

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

Well I have got on a bit but not as much as I'd like. I'm becoming very annoyed with the fact that things seem to be very slow at the moment. I'm not sure if it's my doing or if other things are getting in the way. I did visit the handsome Shizzle yesterday and Shizzle is absolutely huge and has now started growing tufty ear bits and does look just so cute. We (myself and Shizzle's adopted Mum, Alex) are now not so sure if Shizzle is a male after all. Cyril was a much smaller squirrel and was very obviously male but Shizzle is either so plump things are hidden or he is actually a she after all!!!

Also, I can officially blame Alex for preventing my artwork getting done as she gave me a desk which took me all of yesterday afternoon to set up so I now have a dedicated area to work in hence not a lot else got done!

 

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Well I'm back to my old tricks of jumping around again, swapping from piece to another after I said I wouldn't. However this time it wasn't my idea! This is Ruby and she is to be a birthday present for a date very soon and as the other portraits are not due yet I am able to fit this one in and I have been quite good and carried on with Charlie's portrait too and I can post that as soon as I get a chance.

I've also removed the other reference images in a bid to speed up my blog but also to make me concentrate on one thing at a time (unless another short deadline appears of course!)

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website
Now visit my picasa photo album to see completed pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting!

As promised some pics from my display, I was slighty disappointed (more than a little actually) that I didn't have more portraits to cover the walls. It seems I will need to get some more example portraits sorted out for future displays! More work!

Anyway, when we got home it turned out to be quite a nice afternoon so we all went out to play in the garden

And as you can see Willow and her football took centre stage. Willow is obsessed with football, she has 3 and carries them around with her everywhere just on the off-chance someone somewhere will throw it for her. She has lost them in hedges, in the wood and in the boot of the van due to her inability to be parted from her torn and chewed piece of rubber! She has now taken to following me relentlessly and dropping it on my feet to ensure I notice she wants to play!

I also thought I'd show you all the silver version of the appenzellar you met yesterday (here is one of the Elvis' as well)

And then I wandered around the garden and actually realised for the first time that at least 2/3 of our pets are rescued either because animals and birds have been dumped on us, were facing death or because we took pity on them! The 3 chickens above are from 36 we rescued from an egg laying farm in the Hendre in Wales. After a year of prolific laying hens are usually slaughtered because they lay less, they still lay mind you and we get an ample supply from them. We travelled quite some way to get a few but found they had 10,000 birds about to be replaced so we threw the bird cages on the back seat and rammed as many as we could into the boot of our car as well. It did turn out to be a very messy business but these hens have repaid us dividends by laying well and mowing the orchard!!! When we collected them, most were bald and looking quite poorly, in fact a few did die from poor health but the rest are now happy bunnies and run around in the orchard all day long.

Then we have Pierre (at the front). He was about to end up on a dinner plate, we were assured he was female, alas it was untrue and now he is embroiled in a torrid ménage à trois with George and Mildred. He has tried unsuccessfully for 3 years to part them but they have eyes only for each other and even with the addition of several other 'spare' females, he is uninterested and insists on trying to lure Mildred away (grey and white goose) much to George's annoyance and he manages to give Pierre a hefty peck every now and then to put him in his place. Pierre got his name as he is half Toulouse Utility so we said he was a bit french!

We've also gained 6 speckled sussex hens from a lady who was getting divorced and had too little time for them, they are lovely birds but don't actually lay so now we know why she gave up on them! Still we've kept them for a few years and I'm sure they are relieved to know they won't face the chop!

You've all met Willy the chocolate dutch rabbit, he was ordered from a pet shop by a lady who wanted a pair but then didn't want the male, he was left in the shop all alone with no friend for over 6 months until we popped in one day.... the rest they say is history!

I could go on and on with a story for each pet we own but I wonder what happens to all those other little pets that become too much of a hassle, I hope there are plenty of other softies like me out there that keep taking them in because the thought of what happens to them if they aren't so lucky just makes me feel just so sad.

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.