Cocker Spaniel portrait

Cocker Spaniel - Sh Ch Dillonpark Ambrogina - 20" x 16" watercolour

My apologies for lack of posts recently but back to normal now.  Unfortunately I can't show you some completed paintings as they are gifts and I wouldn't be very popular if I spoiled the surprise! 

However, here is a painting I can show you; the cocker spaniel - or as my American friends would call her - English cocker spaniel - Show Champion Dillonpark Ambrogina. I will have to check with her owner when I next speak to him but I believe I am right in saying she is the all time top-winning black cocker spaniel bitch in the UK and as you can see is a very beautiful girl.

I did manage to take one work in progress photo. I have done a lot of work on her eyes even at this stage as I always find it helps to build a relationship with the subject. (I think maybe it's a good thing that artists have a reputation as being a little 'odd'!!)

The ears show the first layers of paint which just mark out areas of shade and start to build form and there is no attempt at detail. However, you can see I have been putting in the coat and much more detail in her head, although this too is at a very early stage. 

If you have any questions or would like to commission a painting of your pet, please email me at info@azpaintings.com or you can click on the Commissioning a Painting tab above.

Looking To The Light (Dalmatian painting)

Looking To The Light - 7" x 5" oil on hardboard/masonite

SOLD

Here is the finished portrait of little Sydney who I wrote about a couple of posts ago. I feel a bit tearful now she is finished and in a way am reluctant to stop working on her. I suppose that maybe it is the close relationship an artist feels with her/his subject which is the reason for this - I feel now I am letting her go.

On a practical note, I hope you can see the amount of work which has been put into her eye since the WIP - I sometimes think I spend as much time on eyes as on the rest of a painting! To those who wonder how such a small area can take such a long time, I can only say that I keep altering the expression until I feel it fits the dog. As I explained in the Charleigh Bear Boxer portrait, this means that it will not always be the same as in the reference photograph, or even if the same, some parts will be exaggerated and others played down. I would also point out to would-be dog portrait artists, that you should take note of the eye shape - it is so important and so frequently got wrong and remember not all dogs of the same breed will have identical eye shape. After all, breed standards, which are blueprints as to the ideal of a particular breed of dog, are very open to interpretation and of course mongrels or mixed breed dogs will have a huge variety of eye shapes.

Sydney was rescued by Dalmatian Rescue of Southwest Virginia 

My thanks once again to Diana Morgan Crush in whose home Sydney was loved and who took the reference photograph.

If you would like to contact me please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Spencer's Birthday

Late last year I painted a portrait of Spencer the English Setter. On Monday Spencer celebrated his 13th birthday and his mum sent me a photo of him at his party. You can see him here, looking so sweet you just want to hug him, with friends chosen because they would leave all the cake for him! What a lucky boy and a lovely photo which brings a smile to my face every time I look at it. 

Happy belated birthday Spencer!

Dalmatian WIP 'Sydney'

Looking To The Light - 7" x 5" oil on hardboard/masonite

Here is my latest 'evening' (or 'relaxing') painting - or at least as far as I have got with it.

I had very mixed feelings about painting this particular Dalmatian called Sydney as her story is rather a sad one...

Sydney was a puppy rescued by Dalmatian Rescue of Southwest Virginia, and she was suffering from a disease called megaesophagus. The rescuers did all in their power to try and give Sydney a chance at life - and in fact worked extraordinarily hard to do so. Her progress was followed by many of us on facebook, enchanted by this sweet, frail puppy. Very sadly her struggle with life became too much for her  little body to take and she was released from this existence with love and compassion. 

It still brings tears to my eyes as I write this and you may wonder why I decided to go ahead with her portrait. I suppose for me it is a way of honouring both her existence and the massive efforts made on her behalf by DRSWV. I think it goes without saying that the donation from this painting once it is finished and sold, will be going to the rescue who did so much for her, and who give so much time and care to rescuing and finding forever homes for Dalmatians in need - Dalmatian Rescue of Southwest Virginia.

If you would like to contact me my email address is info@azpaintings.com

My thanks to Diana Morgan Crush for allowing me to use her photograph

Addendum : this painting is now booked for purchase on completion

Boxer portrait and a little tuition

 

Boxer - Charleigh Bear - 20" x 16" oil on canvas

I was approached by Charleigh's owner, Louise Hitchen, shortly after CB's tragic loss giving birth to a litter of puppies.  Unsurprisingly Louise was in a terrible state having lost her 'baby' and wanted a fitting tribute to her lovely girl. 

I think it goes without saying that as an artist in this situation, the responsibility to create an accurate memorial, both in physical appearance and in character, weighs heavily.

Louise supplied me with a lovely, professionally taken photograph as shown below:

You will notice that I have changed the reflections in her eyes quite considerably which may surprise some. The reason for this is that although it looks very appealing in the photograph, when put into painting form, if I had kept them as they are shown here, they would have appeared lifeless - you can't always paint exactly what you see in a photo.

Here is the first WIP

As CB was a brindle, the painting in of the black hairs takes a long time to prevent them just looked 'daubed' on. 

The second and final WIP is shown below:

You can see one side of the face is finished here and the other side is at the 'undercoat' stage. I  fractionally altered the amount of visible 'third eyelid' in her right (as you look at it) eye and decided to leave out her back as I didn't feel it added anything to the painting and drew attention away from her eyes. 

I am of course delighted that Louise is thrilled with Charleigh's portrait  (despite it causing a few tears) and also pleased to report that because of the dedicated hand-rearing and wonderful care given by Louise,  the whole of CB's litter survived and have grown into strong, healthy puppies all now in their new homes. All except for two that is - they have been kept to become Louise's very own loved and spoilt babies.

If you would like to commission a painting of your own pet, please email me at info@azpaintings.com or click on the 'shop' button in the menu above and go to the 'commissioning a painting' page.

Ever Hopeful (Dalmatians)

Ever Hopeful - 10" x 8 " oil on hardboard/masonite

Well here is the finished painting - again I've had great trouble trying to get an accurate photo and this is as close as I can get. 

This painting is SOLD

The donation from it (10%) is going to Dalmatian Rescue of South Florida/North Miami

in memory of Hope RIP

if you have any questions or would like to commission a painting, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Anne Zoutsos - www.azpaintings.com

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On a personal note today is my Angel's 4th birthday - here she is with her new toy - a squeaky monkey

She is now fast asleep on the sofa after a busy and happy day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGEL!   XXX

Dalmatian WIP #3

Ever Hopeful - 10" x 8" oil on hardboard/masonite

Well, this is going to be my last work in progress for this painting. I found it very difficult to get an accurate photo of it, partly because the light kept reflecting off the wet oil paint and partly it seems because of the different tones in the painting which the camera had difficulty in capturing. This is as close as I can get it for accuracy and is a reasonably accurate copy. 

I know that quite a few people starting out painting find it difficult to give their paintings depth and this is usually due to lack of tone. I always suggest to novice artists who have this problem, to make a monochrome copy of their painting as it will then often reveal to them the lack of difference in tone. For interest I made a monochrome copy of this painting as shown below:

You can see that the painting still retains depth even when the colour has been stripped from it. The difference in tones keeps interest in the painting and this is what we artists are striving for.

The painting will be finished shortly (I hope!)

If you have any questions, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Dalmatian WIP #2

Ever Hopeful - 10" x 8" oil on hardboard/masonite

This is Ever Hopeful a little further on - only painting in the evenings still as I'm busy with commissions during the day. It's frustrating though, as I'm itching to get it finished, but I must just be patient!

If you would like me to paint your own pet, just email me at info@azpaintings.com or click on the 'shop' button in the menu above and then the 'commissioning a painting' button.

Completely off topic

This is totally off topic but if you have 10 minutes to spare in your busy day I thought you might enjoy sitting back listening to the music and reading the words of the well known but nevertheless always apt "Desiderata".

I hope that if you were maybe feeling stressed before watching this, you now feel relaxed and at peace. :)

WIP - Ever Hopeful

Ever Hopeful - 10" x 8"oil on hardboard/masonite

I think most reading this blog will know that I paint full-time. A lot of people think that painting all day must be a very relaxing occupation - well for some it may be, but not for me. I love it and am obsessed by it, but when I am painting portrait commissions, it is hard work as a considerable amount of concentration is necessary to ensure the painting is an accurate portrait. So, after the day's work is finished, the dogs are walked and dinner eaten, what do I do to relax? Paint of course! The difference with these 'evening' paintings (also quite often painted during the day when I can't bear not to get on with them!) is that I don't have to make the dogs featured look exactly like the photographic reference - although I must admit that a lot of them do, but the difference is that they don't have to, which removes the element of, well, I suppose, stress. 

The painting above is one of my 'relaxing paintings' and I still have quite a way to go with it. The plan at the moment is that it will have a dark background when finished. The owner and photographer of these dogs is Dawn 'Simengaard' Jaworski, a friend I met on facebook - thank you Dawn for sending the photo to me.

Once the painting is finished it will be offered for sale with a donation of 10% being made to Dalmatian Rescue of North Miami in memory of Hope - RIP

If you wish you can see some photos of Hope here although I warn you they are upsetting. Sadly she died shortly after being rescued.

German Shepherd Dog - Chance

Chance - 10" x 14" oil on hardboard/masonite

There are quite a few advantages in painting dogs for a living and one of these is that you meet such very nice people and make good friends. One of my friends, made through my paintings, is Lisa Husar. Lisa is a professional photographer and she specialises in photographing wildlife. I am not exaggerating when I say that her photos are stunning - if you don't believe me, have a look at her website teamhusar.com and you will see I am right!

Lisa commissioned this painting for her neighbour and friend after the tragic loss of his beautiful bitch, Chance. As is usual for me, this painting was quite tough to paint - as the painting grows, so does my sadness in the knowledge that the dog is no longer. I suppose some people would think this very odd, but I know that my fellow artists who paint animals will fully understand; when you become so involved with a painting, it is as if, while you are creating them, they live, and when of course you know they don't.............sadness is bound to follow. 

I hope that when the painting is dry and I am able to ship it out to the US to Lisa and she presents it to Chance's owner, that he will not only appreciate her kindness and generosity but also that the painting will bring him some comfort in remembered happy times.

All You Need Is Love

All You Need Is Love - 6" x 6" oil on hardboard/masonite

I have recently updated the home page of my website and put a little slideshow on it. This is one of the paintings which I included in the slideshow as I think it clearly demonstrates the affection well loved dogs have for their owners - ah sweet! I contacted the photographer of the reference photograph, Noel Zia Lee, to check that she was happy with this - and she sent me a very nice email - thank you Noel.

This painting is sold and a donation from the profits was made to Old Dog Haven - doing so much to place unwanted elderly dogs in forever homes.

If you would like to commission a painting, please click on the shop link in the menu above or email me at info@azpaintings.com

Rottweiler pet portrait

Reflections - 5" x 7" oil on hardboard/masonite

The August challenge on the Daily Painters International Art Gallery blog was "Reflections" and so I thought this painting, completed last year, would be a suitable entry. I also posted it in the Artists International Gallery and was amazed at the incredible amount of comments (all nice by the way!) it received - and from a bunch of very talented artists. Of course I was absolutely thrilled.

If you would like to commission a portrait please either click on the link in the menu above (shop), or email me at info@azpaintings.com

My thanks to MandCo at Flickr for the reference photograph

Strictly for the Dogs!

A friend on facebook posted the following and I thought it worth repeating... 

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It came to me that every time I lose a dog they take a piece of my heart with them. And every new dog who comes into my life gifts me with a piece of their heart. If I live long enough, all the components of my heart will be dog, and I will become as generous and loving as they are.

 

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Saluki Head Study

Saluki - Ch Glenoak Ishaara 20" x 16" watercolour

As Dean Grey at Exploding Doughnut commented that he had never seen a saluki before, I thought I would post another one here - this time a head study.

To commission a similar painting please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Blog Changes and Dalmatian Update

Well one guess and it was wrong! I do hope that it is working correctly in all browsers. Ah well now to reveal - I'm not sure how you write the sound 'dah dah' !

What I hope now happens when you click on a painting is that it opens on the same page as the blog, not a new page as previously. I used to have this for my old website galleries before I updated my website (www.azpaintings.com - not this blog) and it is something called 'Lightbox' devised by Lokesh Dhakar and is, to quote: "a JavaScript application used to display large images using modal dialogs". It is in very widespread use over the net as it is so useful and visually appealing. In one way it is very easy to implement on a blog and in another way, takes ages. The reason for this is that for it to work, a tiny bit of html code has to be removed from older photographs - the newer ones don't seem to have it and so are okay.

Anyway, for those who would like to implement the effect on their blog this is what you need to do:
(always save a copy of your template before you make any changes in case you can't make the new one work)

Login to Blogger Dashboard, go to Layout → Edit HTML and add the following code right before the </head> tag:

<link href="http://rilwis.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/blogger/lightbox.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript">script>

<script src="http://rilwis.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/blogger/lightbox.min.js" type="text/javascript">script>

(of course you need to save this)

If your photos on your blog are new, that's all there is to it. However, if they are older - and this was the vast majority of mine, then you need to edit the html code on each of them. Near the top of the post you will find a line which begins: '< a href ' If you find the code s1600, all is fine, but if it says s1600-h, you will need to delete the '-h' part of it.  (this will drive you to the edge of insanity by the way)

I found the above information from this blog deluxeblogtips.

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Now to the Dalmatian part of this posting, you may remember the rescue of a Dalmatian named Fletcher who was gravely ill with pneumonia. Well, I am more than delighted to say he is fully recovered and although it was very hard for his foster mum to let him go, he now has a forever home and his new owners are thrilled with him and he has apparently settled in very well.

Blog Changes

Well I have been very hard at work today on my blog and I wonder if anyone will be able to notice what the difference is? I have tested it on Internet Explorer and Firefox and I prefer the effect on Firefox - actually I much prefer to use Firefox anyway and hardly ever use IE these days.

I hope someone notices what I've done! I will tell you all anyway once hopefully there have been some guesses, and if anyone wants to do the same, I will tell you how.  :)

Saluki

 Saluki - Joop - 20" x 16" watercolour

After the short legged dachshunds, I thought today a rather longer legged hound might be fun. Unlike dachshunds, salukis hunt by sight not scent and they are both very elegant and very fast! It is said that as a breed they tend to be rather aloof with strangers, so I was somewhat surprised when I went to a saluki show a couple of years ago and was met with many wagging tails and affectionate greetings. I suppose some have that 'stand-offish' temperament but clearly a lot don't!

If you have any questions please email me at info@azpaintings.com

If you'd like to commission a painting, please click on Shop in the menu above and then Commissioning A Painting

Smooth Haired Dachshund

Ch Seatris Laced with Success - 20" x 16" watercolour

Well, after showing you all two different dachshund coats, I thought I'd make it a trilogy!!

The dog above is a Smooth Haired Dachshund - as of course it says in the title!

If you have any questions please email me at info@azpaintings.com

If you'd like to commission a painting, please click on Shop in the menu above and then Commissioning A Painting

Wirehaired Dachshund

Ch Kanix Hilda At Stargang - 20" x 16" watercolour

I thought it might be fun, following my posting of a Longhaired Dachshund, to show a dachshund with a different coat. I hope you can see that the coat on this dachshund is somewhat shorter and rougher than the previous one! It is a Miniature Wirehaired Dachshund for those unfamiliar with the breed.

As usual, if you have any questions, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

 

 

Rhodesian Ridgeback painting

Rhodesian Ridgeback - Ch Nyuki Takamali Shujaa of Morlingcourt
(20" x 16" watercolour)

While I'm busy with current commissions, I thought you might like to see some more of my past paintings - I hope you enjoy them! 

A commissioned portrait

If you have any questions, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Dalmatian Commission

22" x 18" watercolour on Saunders Waterford NOT paper

This is a portrait I have been working on for a while and just recently completed. I can show it here now as the owners have seen it and are very happy with it. These two sweet girls have passed on through old age, having spent their lives as much loved pets. It was quite emotionally tough painting them - it always is hard painting dogs no longer around. It may be difficult for non-artists to understand this, and the rapport the artist builds up with his/her subject, even if only seen in a photograph (as most of mine are), but I am sure any pet portrait artists reading this will understand only too well. Nevertheless, it is a privilege to be able to pay tribute to much loved animals.

Anna and Misha

Email problems

During this week I have been informed of several emails to me being returned as undeliverable. I have now discovered that my 'quota' had been exceeded. However, apparently all it needed was for me to tick the box marked 'unlimited' for the problem to be resolved!

So, if you have written to me at info@azpaintings.com recently and had problems getting through, I do apologize and ask you to try again, as hopefully it is all sorted out now.

(Needless to say my daily Japanese spam email comment on this blog got through - still at least with the advice of my friends here, it now comes to me for moderation (ie delete) before it appears here!)

Dalmatian In The Sky

Dalmatian In The Sky - 10" x 8" oil on hardboard/masonite

This painting was inspired by the monthly challenge on the Daily Painters International Art Gallery blog, the theme of which for July was 'Illusion'. I must admit that I very nearly didn't prepare a painting this month, partly because I have been busy with commissions but also, I am ashamed to admit, because I simply couldn't think of an 'illusion' subject!

However, I am pleased to say that my brain finally (after a lot of bullying) produced an idea for a painting which I am showing today. As I hope is obvious, the Dalmatian is walking through shallow water in which the evening sky is reflected and my aim was to make the Dalmatian appear to be walking in the clouds - almost - but with the ripples on the water to tie it to reality and also maybe create some confusion in the viewer. After some tweaking (I really need someone on hand to stop me continually messing with finished paintings!) I am quite pleased with my 'illusion' painting and I hope you like it too :)

Once sold, I will make a donation of 10% from the profits to Save The Dalmatians. You may remember I told you about the rescue of Fletcher who was suffering from pneumonia and was very gravely ill. Following my last update I am absolutely delighted to tell you that he is now eating very well, slowly putting on weight and showing himself to be the most affectionate dog imaginable. As I said previously how he could ever have been abandoned is beyond understanding. Of course buying my painting will help Save the Dalmatians in their work, but if you don't fancy buying a painting, why not spare whatever change you have in your pockets as you read this and make a donation direct - it only takes a few minutes through paypal. Click here and you will go straight to Save The Dalmatians.

To view a short video of Fletcher (together with his foster mum's own 2 Dalmatians) - click here

SOLD

This painting is straight off the easel and will need to dry for several days before it can be shipped

If you have any questions, please email me at info@azpaintings.com

Happy 4th July

I would like to wish all my American friends a very

HAPPY 4TH JULY