Saturday, April 21, 2012

Sloan - an original pastel painting

This is Sloan. I met Sloan's owner a number of years ago and we talked about painting her very special girl, Sloan. Sloan has had quite a show career which includes winning a number of Best in Shows, Best of Breed at Westminster 2011 and Best of Breed at the AKC/Eukanuba Championship 2011. Sloan is now retired and spending some time in the whelping box.

For the painting, a number of photos of Sloan were supplied to me. In the painting, she was to be reclining so a blend of photos was used. For the background of the painting, Sloan was to be resting on a family heirloom - a needlepoint antique love seat. Sloan's owners had some wonderful natural lighting that cast fabulous shadows on the love seat. To have the painting look even more antique"ish", I painted some heavy emerald green velvet draperies hanging behind the love seat. As a final touch, a bouquet of roses was placed next to the love seat. The roses were placed as a prop perfectly by Sloan's owner. They completed a triangular shape of color with Sloan in the center as a focal point. A good composition (or lack thereof) makes or breaks a painting.

The painting is quite large and measures 24" x 36". This painting was such a wonderful journey. Going through the photos of Sloan and the different furniture photos to find the perfect background was magical. Hope you enjoy viewing the painting as much as I enjoyed creating it.




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