Art of the Dog: Dawn Secord: Irish Setter Club of America National Specialty 2009

Monday, July 6, 2009

Irish Setter Club of America National Specialty 2009

Rich and I are home from the 2009 ISCA National Specialty. We drove to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Over the course of 12 days we traveled 5700 miles and saw 20 states. OH MY GOSH - we had a BLAST!!! We traded off driving every 3 to 5 hours. It was great!

We had rented a Toyota Sienna minivan. Driving there, we could see out the back of the van. However, on the way home - the back part of the van kept getting fuller and fuller!

Our plans did not originally include driving to Atlanta, Georgia - but we did end up there staying with Tammy and Duane Sasso. Boy was it nice to stay in a real bed in a real house after staying in hotel after hotel. Drew and Monet emptied the Sasso's dogs toy basket with in minutes. Thanks to the Sasso's for their hospitality.

From there we headed for Texas to see my brother, his wife, Paige, and surprise my mom. We looped Monet's leash over mom's front door knob, knocked and hid. Once the door was opened Monet walked right in and stood up on my step father. It was really funny. She knew who he was but he did not recognize her immediately. He expected her to be in California! My brother took me to his new property - 12 acres north of Dallas. We took those show dogs out in the "country" for some down home romping. The only one that ended up with a tick was me....... We took 100s of landscape photos for my paintings.

As always, it was so much fun to the show the dogs. Drew placed 4th in his 12 - 18 month old dog class - quite a thrill to receive a placement at the National! Monet showed well, did a little running off of her exuberance. She had fun and she had me in stitches in the ring. She is such a happy dog!

It was wonderful visiting with everyone at the National. I never imagined my art would become such a blessing to us - we've met so many fabulous people as a result of my artwork. We can't thank people enough for coming to our booth to visit with us. It is so heartwarming to be able to see people in person that normally are communicating with me via email or the telephone. Thanks to the show staff that put all the work into the show - it was awesome.

We came home, bought a Toyota Sienna and are looking forward to our next road trip!

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Pastel Painting in Progress - French Bulldog

Here is a painting in progress. The pastel paintings are done very much in the same way an oil painting is done. I start with a base color. Usually I work with a precolored surface. With oil painting I would lay in a foundation color so the white canvas wouldn't show through. So this is the same basis. Since I am right handed I work from left to right unless it is a landscape or still life in which case the entire surface is worked uniformly. With pet portraits, so I don't damage an area that is completed, the surface is worked from left to right. While working an area of the subject I lay in mid tone values first - then work light to dark. With pastels an artist can "fill the tooth" of the surface so it is important not to over work any areas. Once the entire subject is painted I go back and reinforce the lightest lights and darkest darks. My greatest area of interest is the eyes. If the eyes aren't right the entire painting will look odd. If the painting is about a sleeping animal it is important to convey the comfort of the animal.

Oil Painting in Process

The following pictures show an Oil Painting in process. The first images show my beginning sketch. I use a common pencil, ruler and an eraser. Once the beginning sketch is satisfactory the sketch is secured with a layer of black oil paint. When the first layer is dried I apply a base color over the entire canvas. I love working on a burnt sienna foundation. There are paintings where I start just working directly on the white canvas and there is no base layer or foundation. It really depends on the painting. From the base foundation I start layering colors. It is a slow process due to drying time. This is where it really becomes fun. I should really make a recording of my husband saying, "You're done - stop messing with it!" Thanks for taking a peek. This painting is of a cat named Lynxy!