Gallery SoHo Exhibit

The opening exhibit for the Gallery SoHo was on Saturday night. It was a fun event. My husband and I took my parents to the opening as a treat and then afterwards we all went out to dinner and celebrated Valentine's Day early.

In this exhibit I entered mostly still life pieces. The paintings are all done in pastel on various surfaces. On of the pieces, "Influences of Fuchsia", was done on pastel paper with a base color of each subjects complimentary color. If you look closely you can see the complimentary colors peeking out. A piece, one of my favorites, "One Hot Pepper", is done on lightly sanded La Carte paper.

There are a few puppy paintings in the mix, "I See You", (Boxer pup) which is included in a recently published book of pastel artists "Best Of America Pastel Volume II" and "Give me a Hug" featuring a Basset Hound puppy.

Thanks for taking a peek!

The First Art Show

My husband was helping me clean a closet this weekend. Buried deep in the closest was an old photo album that I had assembled in high school.

We were looking at the photos and laughing. There was an old newspaper clipping about my first art show in the pages that had been long forgotten. It is hard to believe the photo was taken 30 years ago. How does time fly by so quickly?

So, here is a peek into the past!

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!

The Pastel Journal June 2009

My 11 week old kitten, Baby Lacey, was supervising me putting new information on my website.

What a good little helper!


I was just interviewed for an article about studio lighting for the International publication, The Pastel Journal, June 2009. My studio has quite a bit of natural light in the mornings, but artificial lighting is needed in the afternoons. It was not until one of my studio lights broke and was replaced with an inferior light did I realize the quality of the Ott-Bulbs I was using. One of my paintings, Waiting in the Wing, is pictured in the article. This painting has been sold but there are prints available on my website. They may be purchased directly from the English Setter gallery.

To see the article in full please go to my web site and click on "In the News". The article information is locked there.

Have a great day!

Basset Hound Puppy "Give Me A Hug"

Here is my latest painting for the puppy series that will be on exhibit in the "Art of the Dog" show at Pinnell Gallery beginning the first weekend of May, 2009. This pastel painting depicts a ten week old Basset Hound puppy.

The name of this painting is "Give Me a Hug". Those little eyes were so cute and pleading that "Give Me a Hug" just seemed to fit. If you are interested in purchasing this pastel painting before the show please email me at fff@linkline.com . The painting will need to be shipped to you after the show.

For those of you who live in Southern California - I hope to see you at the show in May. If you need more information - please email me or call me toll-free at 1-866-393-7111.

Have a great day!

French Bulldog Painting in Progress

Today I was working on my painting of the French Bulldog as a demonstration at the Fallbrook Fine Art Gallery.

The City of Fallbrook is having monthly functions called "Wine and a Bite" this summer. Patrons purchase tickets which allow them admittance at galleries where food is catered, wine is served and artists are demonstrating on a work of art.

It was quite an honor to be the featured artist at the Fallbrook Fine Art Gallery. A surprising number of people came through. Many people were asking me about my techniques and complimenting my work. There was a young woman aspiring to be a professional artist full of questions. I can remember being in her shoes years ago. I answered her questions and gave her some tips. It was rewarding to give back as so many artists have helped me along the way.

The above photo was taken at the opening of the event when people were just arriving. The finished French Bulldog painting will be featured on my web site in the next week or so - please check back.

Thanks for checking to see what is going on with my art! To see more artwork, originals that are for sale and limited edition prints that are for sale please go to my web site!

Dawn Secord

http://www.dawnsecord.com/

Irish Setter Family Painting

This painting was commissioned as a family tribute. The owners of the dogs live in a beautiful log cabin in Virginia.

There were eight Irish Setter puppies in the litter. I had taken over 100 photos of the puppies playing so there would a large selection of poses for the composition. Ultimately 41 photos of the pups were printed and laid out on my living room floor to finalize the composition. It was important that each puppy be interactive in the painting so that the viewer found themselves being led from one dog to another. Another 15 photos were printed out of the cabin and the parents. When working on a large multi-subject project such as this it is helpful for me to lay photos out to visualize the final composition.

For the cabin - most of the photos had been taken in the winter while the trees were dormant. There was one photo supplied that showed the summer colors and trees full. In the summer photo the colors of the horizon were breathtaking and it was so much fun to capture the colors behind the trees.

Lastly, and very important to me, was the American flag blowing in the breeze on the front porch. My husband and I are very patriot and we were thrilled to see the flag in the photos.

The painting is 20" x 30" and an extremely rewarding project. I hope you enjoy viewing the painting as much as I had painting it. On my website, there is an Irish Setter painting featuring five puppies playing that is available in limited edition giclee prints.

Dawn Secord

Bennington Center for the Arts

Once a year the Pastel Society of America (PSA) sends invitations out to their signature members to apply to be juried into the annual PSA Signature Member exhibit. The Pastel Society of America is the most prestigious pastel society in America.


A signature membership is an elevated status of an artist which allows that artist to follow their signatures on paintings with the initials of the art association. I was juried into the PSA as a signature member. Non-member artists may only apply for associate membership in PSA once annually. Associate members that would like to be considered for signature membership may apply once a year for that status.


My work, "Golden Dreams", was accepted into this exhibit. The accepted works will be on display in Bennington, Vermont from June 7 - August 3, 2008 at the Bennington Center for the Arts. http://www.benningtoncenterforthearts.org