The Soul of a Dog

Visit the family at home.  Visit in the studio.

Observe the subject.  

More visits.

Listen and learn about the subject’s finest attributes, the life and love, the impact on all around, the proud pedigree.

Compose photographs, take many exposures.

Review the photographs, discuss the final pose.

As the painting comes to life, review the work in progress.

Unveil the final painting.

Tears.

A dog portrait.

You might think that a portrait of a dog is somehow less meaningful than a portrait of a person. I have done both, and I can assure you that many clients will say the dog portrait wins hands down.  One woman told me she’d rather look at a painting of her bulldog than her husband. It was the dog who loved her totally and unconditionally.

“Dewey”

20 x 30 inches

pastel on paper

Sometimes clients arrived for their first meeting heartbroken. They had received the worst imaginable news from their vet and could not accept the idea that their dog would leave them. 

Sometimes they cried. All of them wanted to tell me -- someone they didn’t really know -- all the stories and all the details about life with their dog. Many lingered on my couch for a long time, drinking coffee, talking.  They were desperate.  They hoped their dog would live on in a portrait.

To get it right, I had to feel what the owner felt. I had to know their dog. I had to channel it all and find the essential spirit, the spark, the very soul of the dog.

Dog portraits became a true labor of love for me. The money wasn’t important anymore -- and in fact my fee didn’t come close to covering all the time I spent on these projects. Knowing the anguish many owners felt, I was driven to make every detail of body and expression perfect and real, to give them some enduring comfort. The payoff for me were the tears and joy that blossomed when my clients saw the finished portrait.

“That’s my dog!”