Rusty and Ruby - Mini painting

This mini painting is of two Irish setters when they were pups.   The painting was done last Christmas and for a special touch, a Christmas tree is in the background (gently implied).  It always touches my heart to paint dogs when they were puppies.  Our puppies come into our lives and we have no idea what our futures with them will hold.  When we look back, years gone by, we see those precious little faces and can celebrate our lives together.   I always say, when they are pups, we can not wait for them to grow up.  Then, in a vapor of time, those pups are veterans and we would give anything for them to be pups again.

From Donna - a little bit about the pups in the painting.

 Rusty and Ruby were our foster failures from the humane society.  They were our introduction into Irish Setters and the loves of our lives.  Rusty was a very sickly puppy but went on to become one of the most titled Irish Setters in history.  He excelled at agility and loved his reading to rover role.  In his later years, he became well known for his wagon walks where he stole the hearts of everyone that knew him.  Rusty left us in September of 2021 at the ripe old age of over 14 1/2.

 Ruby was our dog that had it all.  Brains, beauty and athlete all in one package.  Ruby went on to become the highest achieving MACH Irish Setter by earning 12 MACHs before her life was cut short by Osteosarcoma at the age of 9.   She was the most confident dog we have ever loved.

 This dynamic duo showed the world what Irish Setters are capable of and we are forever grateful to have had them in our lives.  They continue to live on in our hearts and will never be forgotten.

 Thank you Dawn for painting this gorgeous portrait of them in their puppyhood.  We had no idea at the time what a memorable ride they would take us on❤️.

Thank you to Donna and Jeff - it is always an honor to paint for you.

Painting of Pepper, an Irish Setter

This is a painting of Pepper.   She was a very special girl to a loving family.    She lived a long life.   To honor her, the family decided to have a painting done of her.

They looked at a life long collection of photos trying to decide which photo would be the one to be used as our primary reference photo.   The chose to use one when she was a bit younger.   She had a frisky personality and this photo - the eye contact - provided them with wonderful memories of a girl that knew who she was and what she liked.    

Thank you for having me paint your girl.   I wish I could have met her!

Reba and Luna - a painting of a mother and daughter

 This is a painting created using soft pastels.  It is of two Irish Setters, a mother and daughter.

Reba (left) and Luna (right) were mother and daughter.   Reba has left us and Luna is a special girl that allows her family not only to love her deeply, but have a little piece of Reba through her.   

Until we bred a litter, I didn't truly appreciate the depth of having a mom and a pup.    Through the pups you see tidbits of their parents - the mannerisms, maybe little quirks - inherited traits.  These traits, unless you knew the parents, maybe just fun aspects of that given dog.   Knowing the parents, you understand the tidbits are inherited little precious moments that remind you of their parents.   We see that in our human families.   Fun little behaviors inherited from parents or grandparents.

For the painting, I flipped Luna's pose in her reference photo so that she would be leaning in towards her mother.   The beauty of a painting is there are no rules.   You can paint what is in your heart and create the setting.  It was a great experience to paint a mom and her pup together.  Thank you to all those involved.

Give your dogs a big hug.   Time goes by so quickly.  Regardless of mom, pup or otherwise, before we blink an eye, that dog has grown older and we are wondering how time passed without us knowing it was happening.

Below are the reference photos used for the painting:

Cooper - Original Pastel Painting

When a new painting image is posted to my blog I usually talk about the painting and the process while painting that commission.   Recently, in a small boutique in McKinney, Texas, I happened upon a small book containing a collection of great sayings.    I thought it might be fun to share some of these inspirational tidbits.    In the atmosphere of wanting a positive environment surrounding all of us, following is my inspirational share for the day....along with a piece of my art.

An original painting - Cooper

Self respect,

self worth and self love,

all start with self.

Stop looking outside of

yourself for your value.

author unknown.

A painting of Dominick: MBISS MBISS NBIS GCHG PaRay’s Power and Privilege

This painting was something I'd been looking forward to doing.   Dominick's owners had wanted a unique painting of their lovely boy.   I was excited to work with them again.   I had painted their girl, Sloan, a number of years ago.

The goal was to have him in a Victorian setting.   After quite a lot of research and going back and forth with ideas - we had a plan.  I've not done a painting like this before, but what fun it was to create.   Dominick was a Bichon Frise and had a significant impact on the breed.   With that in mind, I wanted the colors of the clothing to reflect Dominick.   The purple and gold colors in the clothing are the colors of the Best of Breed ribbon in the dog show world.  In addition, purple and gold are the colors for the Westminster Kennel Club.   All fitting to include in this dog's painting.   Over the course of the research and the completion of the painting, many conversations were had.  

Following are some snippets of these conversations as well as background information about Dominick.
 Dawn, I have been fascinated by these images since I opened your email!

You are so clever with the angle of the head in position to the chest. Very intriguing.

The image of Dominick (#3)  looking up to the right, without his tongue sticking out - is the one I like best for the portrait. 

Did you flip this image?   Perfect!

Here is a little bit about Dominick:
MBISS MBISS NBIS GCHG PaRay’s Power and Privilege, “Dominick,” was our foundation sire for the Rosemont Bichon Frise line and had 21 litters to his credit.

And... a finished painting:

WOW! Just WOW!!

Beautiful. I think you did an extraordinary job on Dominick's head/face/expression, and the colors are magnificent - soft purple and gold - Westminster, and Best of Breed!

Dominick’s expression is lovely and your eye is perfect.

Martin got the biggest smile our of Dominick’s paw on the cane. It is his favorite part, after Dominick’s head.  I will enjoy it every day!  I can't wait to see the original.  And yes, the background detail is beyond expectations! Thank you very much!!

 

He will always be a most precious Bichon to me - - my heart dog.

 

Thank you to Laura and Martin for having me paint their special boy.  It was an honor.

A painting of Tobie the Yorkie and Murphee the Maltese

This painting was really awesome to create.  The owners of Tobie and Murphee had the perfect photos for our project.  Both dogs had passed away and and fortunately their owners had a number of them.  

There was a great photo of the boys laying on the back of the sofa.   Their expressions in that photo were not ideally what the owners wanted reflected in the painting.   However, there were some other photos that had the dogs' expressions that really showed "the boys" personalities.

Usually I stay away from moving body parts like this.  Since the dogs had so much coat, it was not as big of a transition as it would be on a short coated dog like a Frenchie (for example).  I didn't have to worry about muscle or tendons being off - all would be covered with their hair.  For the background, I was a bit concerned the darkness in the photo would over power the dogs.  This was discussed with the dogs owners, Kim and Eric, and they agreed.

The photos are all shown below and you can see how the painting came to life.

I asked the owners to share a little bit about the dogs and this is what they told me:

Tobie, our Yorkie, was born August 26, 2004, and Murphee, our Maltese, was born December 26, 2005.  They became brothers in the Spring of 2006 and played a tremendous role in our family for the years to follow.

In their relationship with each other, Tobie was the “big brother”.  He was very smart, spirited, and welcoming; we considered him an “old soul”, as he was very intuitive in his mannerisms.  Murphee, the baby of the family, had a very affectionate and playful character.  He carried himself in a regal manner, and was a true and sweet companion to all he trusted.  “The Boys”, as we affectionately called them, shared a loving bond and were always together. 

This painting, on the back of our sofa, depicts their favorite spot in the house.  It gave them a collective, comfortable view over their home, and more importantly, over our family.  We are so grateful for our time together, and remain appreciative of their lively spirit – they will be in our hearts forever.

Thank you again for truly capturing their spirit.  We are so grateful for this keepsake and your effort.

Eric & Kim

Pembroke Welsh Corgi painting is completed

This was such a cool painting.   The dog featured, Annie, is no longer with her family.  So, this was a very special painting for them.   It sounds like Annie had a nice long life.   For those of us who are animal lovers, no matter how long an animal is with us - it is never long enough.

They were going to be in Palm Springs traveling in from Arizona.  We planned for me to have the painting finished by the end of the show so they could take it with them.

Due to my waiting list, I only have a booth at a show twice a year.   It is always fun to paint in public and talk to people.   Such a huge and welcome change from sitting at home and painting alone.   While I LOVE to paint at home, it is a nice change to get out in public sometimes.

Thank you to Denisa for having me paint her special girl.

Portrait of 5 Ibizan Hounds

This was an exciting painting to create.   Many of the dogs featured in this painting are no longer with us.  There were limited photos of those dogs and a great deal of research was involved to assist me where the photos could not.

I studied photos of Ibizans to make sure the features I was going to add to the photos was indeed consistent in the breed.  Questions I asked myself were - what is to be expected on bone structure, nose shape, ear shape, eye shape and muzzle width for the Ibizan Hound?   The photo of Rio, in the middle, was ideal.  A few of the photos were fine.   A few of the photos were small and hazy.   With the white on the faces, it could be easy to paint the muzzle too wide or too narrow.  A little homework only makes the student stronger.  (My motto is that I am always learning - always the student in all that I do.)

The dog in the lower left corner, Annie, was laying down in the reference photo.   It was a challenging pose for the painting.  What to do?  Well, I have big dogs and I know what big dogs do.   Big dogs lay their heads on the table and beg for food when you are eating....well, they do if you let them around the table while you are eating.   That was the perfect solution.  I'd have Annie standing with her head laying on a table.   Easy - well, hopefully it would work out and be easy.   Sometimes I have these ideas to put into a painting and one thing changes one thing that changes another thing and before I know it the "easy" wasn't easy.

The layout of the dogs was also a bit challenging like putting together a puzzle.  How could I arrange them to make them into a complimentary composition.   Rio was to be in the middle of the painting, that was requested.  How I arranged the others was left to my judgement.

Long story short, with a goal of no one's ears being in anyone else's face, it worked out.   The important factor was to have the subjects' faces as large as possible and fit in all those ears in a flattering arrangement.

Hope you enjoy viewing the painting as much as I enjoyed painting it.   Thank you to Julie for entrusting me with such a large and important project.


Following is one of the proposed compositions for the painting.  It was not the final placement as seen above.  Also, we used a more recent photo of Rio in the middle - featured below the composition.  Such an enjoyable project!!

Sir Finn - A portrait of an Irish Setter

This was such a fun painting to do - well - I feel like a broken record saying this, but I never tire of painting people's animals for them.   It just touches my heart.

This is Finn.   His owner wanted a standing painting of him from the very beginning.  In the primary reference photo he was pulling down on his tail a bit.  I had to laugh when she asked me to fix the tail (and she did have a great photo of his top line and tail as another reference photo).  So, the reason I had to laugh - my dogs all pull down on their tail when I am showing them if I grab the tip of their tail.    I've never trained them to hold their tail out by holding the tip of it.  If I try to pull on the tip of their tail, the tuck their hiney down and it is laughable.  I had a judge pull Jewel's tail once and Jewel fiercly tried to wag it out of the judge's grasp.   No, we didn't win, but the judge did laugh at Jewel's antics.   Finn has a lovely top line and tail set.   We most certainly did need to show that in the painting!

Sir Finn is my very special heart boy.  In this painting he was just 2 years old.  He is now 3 and has earned 6 titles.  His  reg. name is CH Captiva One Last Time BN,RN,RA,THDN, CGC.   Sir Finn Excels at his therapy work and has a real bond with Alzheimer patients.  He was with my mom when she passed away last year and it was so very amazing how gentle he was with her and is with other patients.  He wants to please me with everything he has within himself, whether it be obedience or just cuddling.  He is a true gentlemen.  In agility classes, he listens and stay with me but is now getting too fast for me so we will see what this brings.  He has a heart of pure gold and is so very calm .  Even the day we brought him home from Canada,  he, a 10 week old puppy, calmed my very sick Irish, Liam!  Sir Finn has never found a person or critter he has not liked no matter what they do or say.  There will never be another Finn.  I do thank Dawn Secord for capturing him so amazingly and in a few more year hope to have a head portrait of him.

Thank you Rita for having me paint your beautiful boy!

Sir Finn - A portrait of an Irish Setter

This was such a fun painting to do - well - I feel like a broken record saying this, but I never tire of painting people's animals for them.   It just touches my heart.

This is Finn.   His owner wanted a standing painting of him from the very beginning.  In the primary reference photo he was pulling down on his tail a bit.  I had to laugh when she asked me to fix the tail (and she did have a great photo of his top line and tail as another reference photo).  So, the reason I had to laugh - my dogs all pull down on their tail when I am showing them if I grab the tip of their tail.    I've never trained them to hold their tail out by holding the tip of it.  If I try to pull on the tip of their tail, the tuck their hiney down and it is laughable.  I had a judge pull Jewel's tail once and Jewel fiercly tried to wag it out of the judge's grasp.   No, we didn't win, but the judge did laugh at Jewel's antics.   Finn has a lovely top line and tail set.   We most certainly did need to show that in the painting!

Sir Finn is my very special heart boy.  In this painting he was just 2 years old.  He is now 3 and has earned 6 titles.  His  reg. name is CH Captiva One Last Time BN,RN,RA,THDN, CGC.   Sir Finn Excels at his therapy work and has a real bond with Alzheimer patients.  He was with my mom when she passed away last year and it was so very amazing how gentle he was with her and is with other patients.  He wants to please me with everything he has within himself, whether it be obedience or just cuddling.  He is a true gentlemen.  In agility classes, he listens and stay with me but is now getting too fast for me so we will see what this brings.  He has a heart of pure gold and is so very calm .  Even the day we brought him home from Canada,  he, a 10 week old puppy, calmed my very sick Irish, Liam!  Sir Finn has never found a person or critter he has not liked no matter what they do or say.  There will never be another Finn.  I do thank Dawn Secord for capturing him so amazingly and in a few more year hope to have a head portrait of him.

Thank you Rita for having me paint your beautiful boy!

Irish Setter Puppy Painting Number 2

Here is puppy painting number two.   The first painting can be seen on my facebook page at:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-by-Dawn-Secord/120610651282807?ref=br_rs

To push the emotion in the painting a bit further than that of the photo, I rolled this pup's ears back a tad more than what her ears were doing in the actual photo.   That is the fun with painting - no rules - no being limited with a photo.   Following is the story about this painting.   If you want to participate in the voting on which painting I should put into print, please go to my facebook art page and share your comments!

Here is a second puppy painting that was done for a show.   When the first puppy painting was completed, I was asked if it was going to be put into print.   Originally, that had not been the intention.   The two paintings were simply for a show. 

When going through all the different reference puppy photos in my library, the reference photo for this second puppy painting kept talking to me.   There was something about the eyes that drew me in and kept me there.  At first, it seemed the pup was longing for something.  After looking at the photo numerous times it no longer had that look, but rather a thoughtful look.  The emotion the pup was displaying was very thought provoking - what the heck was that pup thinking?  I figured, if I kept going back to that photo, well, I better paint it.

So, my question to you is (now that I've decided to put one of the two into a limited edition print) which of the two should it be?   Would love to hear your votes - is it puppy painting number one or puppy painting number two?  In puppy number one, I used some fun fruitful colors that were used in a painting of my dog Jewel,  years ago (you can see a snippet of Jewel's painting on the top of my blog) that were more of a fun cheery approach.   Puppy painting number two has more bold colors.    

The emphasis was not color harmony in the painting but to direct the viewer to the eyes of the pup.

If you want to see the original reference photo for puppy painting number 2 - go to my blog at http://www.artofthedog.blogspot.com 

Don't forget to send me a comment and let me know which of the two you prefer!   Thanks so much!

My newest limited edition print is out.   It is part of the "Country Series."    The title is "Old Country" and is available by going to my website at http://www.dawnsecord.com/printsforsale.html or by calling me / emailing me.

The painting features a historic stable and carriage located on the East Coast. The family of Irish Setters are sitting on an antique horse drawn carriage. Two horses are shown inside the stable. They are looking out towards the meadow, which is visible through the breezeway of the stable. Cherry Blossoms are in bloom behind the pups on the carriage.

The property on which the stable and carriage actually sit was a 7,000 acre land grant by Lord Baltimore to his niece in 1703. The structures were believed to be constructed circa 1728. The carriage featured in the painting sits protected inside the carriage house along with a number of other carriages.

To create the painting I worked from a number of photos of the stable during different seasons. I chose to use the spring photos, as that is when the 2013 ISCA National Specialty is actually taking place in Virginia.

The original painting has been sold. There will be reproductions produced in three sizes, as well as artist proofs. All will include a certificate of authenticity and will be signed and numbered.