Art of the Dog: Dawn Secord: Irish Setters can pass obedience class!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Irish Setters can pass obedience class!

These are two of our dogs - Monet and Drew. Monet - our feisty three year old girl and Drew - our crazy boy who is 21 months old. They are both Irish Setters.

Monet graduated from basic obedience class last Wednesday. This was her third time in such a class. However, this was a new instructor, a new training facility, and this instructor kept meatballs in her pocket. Monet was going to LOVE this class....

Drew .... well .... Drew. He sure had a great time in class. His undivided attention however was not on me but on the fattest little corgi named Tabitha. Treats didn't matter, coaxing didn't matter. Drew is in love. Poor little Tabitha had his big clunky paw set down on top of her little head more times than I care to confess!

These pictures were taken to see if they really knew "wait". As you can see it kinda worked. Notice a few of the pictures have no treats in them....hum.....or should I say "Yum"!

1 comment:

Unknown said...: Dawn, I absolutley love the pictures and the blogs about your 'babies'. I have 3 Irish Setters and they have all passed their training classes...they are much smarter than anyone outside of setter circles understand. No one can get past the clownish personality to see that there is intelligence in those big beautiful brown eyes. Please keep up the blog, it makes my day when you post!!; November 27, 2009 at 12:26 PM

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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!