This is a painting of Bandit and Coors - two litter mates.  I know their "brother" Troy.  He stayed with us when he was a pup for a few weeks as a favor to a friend.   Labrador Retrievers are such great dogs - clowns while loyal, intense while casual - they are just great dogs (not to be redundant) but they are.

Thank you to Christen and Andrew (and their Aunt Suzanne) for having me involved with this special project.  I asked them to share some information about Bandit and Coors.  Below is what they had to say.

Dawn,
Thank you for capturing our dogs’ unique features, although they are always truly brother and sister and
love to be right next to one another, they have such different personalities. Our Blonde girl “Coors” is
such a tomboy and has no idea how big she is when she sits on the couch next to you or when she ends
up putting her big muzzle on the pillow next to your face early in the morning.
Our boy Bandit has such a deep bark on all muscle frame but wants nothing more than to be loved on
while he stares at you with his big brown innocent eyes.
These guys together have the routine down to with in minutes of the first meal, big bone when we
leave, what time I am supposed to be home to feed them dinner and then the long stare for when It is
time to go on our evening dog walk, maybe they have trained us. We love taking them on vacations and
well as eating donuts together on the weekend. Bandit and Coors are usually so well behaved until you
show them any sort of water and then all bets are off for, they never want to get out no matter what
temperature it is outside.
We love them as our own children and wish they will never grow old but at least we will have this
painting to remind us of how much they mean in our lives.
Thank you again so much
Christen and Andrew Lee

Here are the reference photos for the painting.

A painting of Jenny and Troy

This painting had been planned for some time.  The family lives in a canyon with an abundance of beautiful plants and scenery.  After a few trips walking around their grounds we found the perfect setting.  We'd have the dogs sitting on some steps under an arbor.  The only down side, was the foliage wasn't in bloom.  So, we waited for Spring and the flowers blossomed and we had our background.   During one of our discussions, hummingbirds were the topic.  It was clear the owners of the dogs had a fondness for hummingbirds.  We talked about including a hummer in the foreground and everything just fell into place.

We took photos of the dogs, separately, in a number of locations.  It seemed they were really most photogenic and relaxed in the foyer, so those were the photos used.  

I'd asked Jenny and Troy's "parents" if I could work on their painting as a demo at the Kennel Club of Palm Springs and they agreed.   I'd worked on the painting off and on during December and then finished it in January.  

This painting was absolutely a blast to  plan and paint.   Jenny and Troy are amazing dogs and really were cooperative throughout the process.   Thank you to Suzanne and Don for having me paint their "fur" kids!