A lovely part of my work as an animal portrait painter is when a client gets in touch regarding a memorial portrait. It’s such an honour to be asked to produce an artwork of an owner’s much missed pet and this latest portrait is of a beautiful Border Collie called Jack, whose eyes just melted my heart.
I’m pleased to say that Jack’s owner and family were very happy with his portrait and hopefully it will bring a bit of comfort to them.
Well it’s turning into a fairly busy year, exhibition-wise. There are a lot of available art exhibitions to submit work to, very tempting, but I’m trying to build my stocks up in between commissions, so I’ve limited myself to the following events…so far.
The Ludlow Art Society and Association of Animal Artists exhibitions are on at the moment, Ludlow actually closes today and I’m delighted to write that ‘Barb’ sold at that one, yay! The Rose Paterson gallery at Weston Park near Shifnal, UK is the setting for the AAA exhibition and it makes for a grand day out, as the grounds are gorgeous, the work on show is amazing and the café does a great flat white!
In a month or so, my donated 5” x 7” ‘postcard’ will be displayed in Vancouver, alongside many others, in the annual Twitter Art Exhibition – monies raised will benefit the Urban Native Youth Association – so if you’re in that Canadian neighbourhood, don’t miss it.
Then later in the year, I’ll be taking part in H-Arts which is the Herefordshire arts festival here in the UK and I’ll be exhibiting alongside a collective of local artists in our village church… very exciting!
Here are some of my submissions to the various exhibitions.
Exhibitionitis – is that a thing, is there a cure?!
It’s always exciting taking part in an art exhibition and my first one with the Association of Animal Artists will be happening from this weekend until 30 November.
The venue is the Granary Room in Weston Park near Shifnal – a beautiful country house in the Shropshire countryside , which I’m looking forward to discovering.
These are my 3 exhibits which will be taking part amongst an amazing display of talented work by animal artists from all over.
Whether you want to treat yourself to a piece of animal art or just view this collection of work, I reckon it’ll be a grand day out in lovely surroundings. Enjoy!
After a bit of thought and deciding to just go for it, I applied to join the Association of Animal Artists and was delighted to be accepted. There are amazing artists with an incredibly diverse approach to creating animal art in this group. I’m looking forward to admiring the work and linking up to other artists as well as taking part in various exhibitions and social events. Yay!
I’ve been doing a few paintings on small 5” x 7” canvasses recently and enjoying scaling down – the longest side is about the length of a standard pencil. A good excuse to dust off my tiny ‘000’ brushes. The new smaller sizes mean I can offer a lower price for commissions and sales, yay! That is, as long as the subject will fit on a postcard size format! Here’s a couple of recent examples…
I took some photos of my friend’s Jack Russell Terrier recently and decided that I’d do a pastel portrait of this little pooch gazing up at her owner. A different style of composition to my usual and fun to do. The portrait was a surprise gift and Pimm’s owners instantly recognised their little cutie… phew!
It’s interesting that you don’t always need to capture a pet’s face to strike a chord of familiarity to the owner, they’ll know them from any angle.
Unison pastels on Clairefontaine Pastelmat 12″ x 9″.
I can’t believe it’s been almost 12 months since I last posted on my blog, but it has been a busy period! Since last December, we have sold our home in Scotland and moved 200 miles south to our new home in Herefordshire. Moving during a pandemic has been… well, challenging shall we say, but we are now settled in a lovely village with a friendly community.
Although I miss my pals up north, it has meant that we are now closer to family and will see more of them.
Fresh fields mean new opportunities and I’ve now got my studio set up and cracking on with commissions and other work, meeting new people and getting involved in art societies as well as village life.
I’ll be posting much more regularly than in the past year, so watch this space!
In the meantime, here are a few recent works which have been produced in my new space.
This was a recent commission for a client in Germany who contacted me via a friend. They had recently had to say goodbye to their beautiful golden retriever and I was honoured to be asked to create a portrait of her with one of her favourite toys. Hopefully the painting will give a little comfort to the family at a very sad time. RIP Tessa.
Following on from my delight at having a painting selected for last year’s Paisley Art Institute’s annual exhibition which consequently sold, I am absolutely chuffed to bits to let you know that I have been selected for this year’s PAI exhibition too.
‘Pug Dug’, acrylic on canvas panel, will be taking part and I couldn’t be prouder!
Exhibition runs from 7 September – 20 October 2019 at the Piazza, Central Way, Paisley, PA1 1EL, Scotland.
‘Pug Dug’
I think we all need a bit of cheering up now and again in this mad, mixed up world of ours and how better to thank our four (and two) legged friends who always bring a smile and provide unconditional love, than with a day to celebrate them.
Happy National Pet Day!
Rosie Mark Artwork 