Cleo - Dalmatian oil painting

Cleo - 10" x 8" oil on hardboard/masonite

I do apologise to my friends for my sporadic posts of late - I promise to try and do better from now on (mind you notice I am only promising to try!!) 

I am pleased to present Cleo, one of the paintings from my charity drive. I must warn you all now that there is a preponderance of Dalmatians in this effort, but I think this is mainly due to the large number of Dalmatians friends I have on facebook. However, don't worry, other breeds are also represented!!

I am frequently requested by artists if I will critique their portraits and I am very happy to do this. Most wish this to be done privately and of course I understand this, but if there are any out there who would like their efforts to be included on this blog, please let me know - there are a lot of artists at the beginning of their careers who would thank you. I am asked many, many times, what is the most important aspect of pet portraits and I suppose I would give the same answer, whether it was for an animal or human portrait and that is that you need to portray the personality and spirit of the subject. I would rather see a rough and ready portrait which portrayed personality, rather than a polished painting which was bland and without spirit, any day. However, for me the aim is to paint a realistic portrait which is both lively and reveals the character of the subject. 

I would also add that I am quite often asked to paint human portraits. I used to paint these but stopped a while ago owing to, I suppose, a disillusionment with the human race. I might be persuaded to paint another human one of these days - who knows - but I cannot at the moment imagine how!

For now, if you would like a portrait of your beloved pet immortalised by me, email me at info@azpaintings.com 

and I will get to work for you.