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.
I like the idea of this event.. a chance to say Hi, show a few samples of what you do and thank your supporters… so interesting to look at what other creatives are producing too!
In Liverpool, where I grew up, this is a phrase used to mean ‘on with the next thing’ often quoted by the late, great Paul O’Grady. Well the next ‘cab’, or exhibition, for me is a first… I’m taking part in the very popular Herefordshire Arts Week (H.Arts) 2-10 September and it’s quite exciting!
In our little village of Leintwardine, the historic grade 1-listed 12th century St Mary Magdalene church will be playing host to a collective of 16 creatives who will be showcasing their work from art, ceramics, woodwork, bronzes, millinery plus more. Most work will be for sale too.
Here’s a small selection of my animal paintings that will be available.
Come and visit – there are two venues in Leintwardine – venue 119 which is Lou Lothian’s beautiful pottery and venue 120 the above mentioned collective group in the village church.
Details of all venues and locations around Herefordshire, can be found on the H.Arts web site – just click this link… http://www.h-art.org.uk
See you there!
This small 8″ x 8″ painting has been chopped and changed a few times and I eventually ended up with a portrait of a young black bull, a steer if you will, which has proved quite popular. He’s just sold through my Artfinder store within a few days of adding him and I was sort of sorry to package him up and send him off to his new home. You never know how your work is going to be received – one person’s meat is another person’s poison!
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 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.
Well what a year this has been – most of us will be glad to see the back of it and are hoping for a much improved 2021, but one of the more uplifting events in 2020 was a scheme created by artist Tom Croft to thank our NHS Heroes dealing with the Coronavirus Pandemic by gifting a portrait to them. Tom invited artists to offer free portraits of NHS workers which took off in an amazing way and by November a book of some of the portraits was published by Bloomsbury Publishing (link is below). The royalties from the sale of each book go directly to the NHS.
I was very lucky to be included in this important and poignant record of what has been an extraordinary year and my portrait of Megan Cavanagh, a young nurse from Liverpool, sits proudly on page 159.
Meg and all the other NHS key workers fully deserve their Heroes status – we are indebted to them.
With Christmas just around the corner, there is still time to order the Portraits For NHS Heroes book. The portraits and accompanying stories are such an interesting and emotional read. A perfect gift this year.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/portraits-for-nhs-heroes-9781448218004/
This year’s Twitter Art Exhibition is taking place 3-15 April in Myrtle Beach, California in aid of Horry County Disabilities and Special Needs. I’ve taken part in TAE for the last few years as I think it’s a great way of raising money for the chosen charities. Artists connect with others via Twitter, the charity raises funds and the buyers at the art exhibition buy very affordable mini artworks – it’s a win win situation!
If you live near Myrtle Beach, why not check it out?
Here’s my donation to this year’s exhibition – ‘Leo’ acrylic on card.
Leo – acrylic
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.
Rosie Mark Artwork 