Art of the Dog: Dawn Secord: California Otter Pup

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

California Otter Pup

In June of 2016 my husband and I traveled to Morro Bay, California to pick up a kitten (who will be 2 years old this week - where has the time gone???) and to my delight there was a bay full of sea otters with pups. I took literally 100s of photos.

http://dawnsecord.homestead.com/Wildlife-Art.html

Here is the painting that was created. The painting is small, 6" x 6", and is on sanded board.

The painting is a combination of several photos. The otters were floating on a kelp bed. The goal was to have a direct view of the pup's face in the painting. I absolutely love painting the eyes of the animals. The tiny paws of the pups were adorable and they just had to be in the painting.

For the sanded board, I took an acid free coated board and put an additional coat of toned gesso for a gray / taupe colored under painting. Then I took "pastel ground" a textured acrylic primer for grit to get a deeper tooth for the pastel. I used a thick brush to apply the layers of gesso for even more texture. It was not an experiment but rather a direction to create some unique feeling to the pastel painting. In viewing the painting close up, one can see brush strokes in it. When I paint in oil, I love to see the brush strokes. My goal here was to give a brush stroke feeling to the pastel painting.

Hope you like it! The painting will be on exhibit the last weekend of April 27th thru 29th, 2018. If you will be in Southern California (San Dimas - which is about 1/2 hour from my home in Chino Hills - 1/2 hour from the Ontario CA Airport) please come by! Would love to visit.

Here are a few of the photos taken in Morro Bay, California that were used for the painting.

http://dawnsecord.homestead.com/Landscapes.html

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: This Artist,Dawn Secord,has a God given talent to create great images of anything she choose to display. We've owned 4 Irish Setters over 30 years! Luckily,we commissioned Dawn to paint two of them,together with close-up of both their "heads" close together. Now, we have a "Treasured Image" to keep! Thank you,Dawn for making this possible!
It's truly "UNFORGETTABLE!"; March 5, 2018 at 8:52 AM

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