Art of the Dog: Dawn Secord: hunting dogs

Showing posts with label hunting dogs. Show all posts

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Painting of Bebe

This is Bebe. She is an English Setter. I've always loved English Setters. As a young girl, I just thought the setters were like Siamese cats and came in different colors. At that time, I wanted a setter in every color. It is fun to look back at how we viewed life as children. Embarrassingly I must admit, I also thought a Flat Coated Retriever was a black Irish setter.

When Bebe's owner contacted me to paint Bebe I was thrilled. The painting was to be a gift for her husband. So....we could have no Internet contact, no Facebook contact - we were in a stealth mode because Jennifer's husband could figure just about everything out. She paid me with cashier's checks.....all stealth. It is interesting how she handled my waiting list time frame. Jennifer told her husband that the gift was on back order - ingenious! Seems like nowadays, everything is on back order.Now, one has to ask, who is the more clever of the two?? This was the first time Jennifer was able to fully surprise Norman!! A win win for both of them.

http://www.dawnsecord.com/printsforsale.html

http://www.dawnsecord.com/commissioninformation.html

http://www.dawnsecord.com/inthenews.html

To my delight, Jennifer's husband, Norman, called me in person to talk about his gift once it was received. What a great guy. He talked about how special dogs were to his family and how the painting brought forth some tears. Seems like the true gift recipient in this painting was me. I never expected to meet all the fine people I have through my paintings.

I'd asked Jennifer and Norman to share a little bit about Bebe and this is what they told me:

Bebe is a wonderful 8 year old English Setter. After a lifetime of dog ownership, she has become my husband's all time favorite. We got Bebe when she was a year old from a breeder. She was shy and immediately took to my husband as her protector. A few weeks after asking Dawn if I could get on her waiting list to do a portrait, within 48 hours, Bebe became totally blind due to SARDS (Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome). It has been a difficult adjustment, but Bebe is doing very well. She is totally spoiled and has trained my husband to make her toast for breakfast every morning! Dawn has truly captured her essence and beauty.

Thank you Jennifer (and Norman) for the honor of painting your special girl!

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Commission of Emma

This is a recently finished commission of Emma. When her family approached me to paint her I was thrilled. Another art collector had suggested to them that I paint Emma as I had painted their senior dog, Ruby. As an artist, nothing is more heartwarming than to know someone is asking me to paint their dog because someone else is so pleased with their painting.

When they brought Emma to me to take the photos, my heart melted. She is a veteran girl with the softest eyes and the most amazing ears. We took a ton of photos of her and it really was a hard decision to determine which photo best represented Emma.

The painting was done a few months ago, but the family allowed me to hang on to it until the ISCA National Specialty so I could have it there on display.

If you'll be at the National - and want to see the painting in person - please come by my art booth!

Thank you to Emma's family for choosing me to paint her portrait and thank you to Ruby's family for suggesting it to them!!

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!