As you all know, I am a huge animal lover so it gives me great joy when clients ask me to immortalise their own beloved animals.  Some recent commissions really ticked that box and they all have slightly different ‘back stories’ and are all in different media, so I thought they might be worth sharing.  Hope you enjoy reading them.

Millie and pups!

Back in 2012, I was commissioned to create a watercolour portrait of Millie, a beautiful Cockapoo. The owners were delighted with the work and pleased to see it framed and hung on their wall.

It was a complete delight and honour for me, then, about a decade later for those same owners to get in touch and ask me to produce an image of two beautiful, lively puppies called Ethel and Gladys,  who were about a year old at the time.  Of course, I was delighted to!  I visited to take photos of the girls, as I had done too for Millie, which I was then able to edit in photoshop to work out the composition to work from.  The photos (left) and my completed artwork (right).
photo portrait

 

 

 

 

 

The client messaged me to say how delighted she was with this final piece:
“We went straight to get it framed as I didn’t want a coffee cup ring on it!  Love it so much Sue xx”

I was even more delighted when they also sent me a photograph of the finished piece, not only framed and on their wall, but alongside my original watercolour of Millie from all those years ago.  What a joy!
Watercolour pet portrait painting, Animal Magic Art

Beloved Baloo

Fans of ‘The Jungle Book’ (or former Cub Scouts!) will recognise the name Baloo as the gentle sloth bear who befriends Mowgli in the story.  This Baloo – a handsome Labradoodle – is also a gentle giant so suits the name very well.

Baloo’s owners commissioned a first oil portrait of him having seen one of my own dog, Buster (right), on display at the Downton Cuckoo Fair and liked my style.  Sadly, they had lost Baloo in 2022 so were keen to keep his memory alive.

They sent me a clear photograph of him that they liked for me to work on; you can see the photo and my finished work below for comparison.

Owner Denise kindly took to Google to give me a review:
“Just collected my first oil painting from Sue. Her work is amazing. I’m so very pleased with the painting of my wonderful Baloo. It is absolutely perfect and so lifelike it’s incredible. Fabulous memories brought to life is an absolute gift and I am so grateful. Looking forward to collecting painting number two! I cannot recommend her work enough. Thankyou so much Sue.”

So, to my surprise and delight, the clients were so pleased with the portrait that they immediately commissioned a second one, also in oils, just in a different pose.  Again, you can see their original photo and my work below.
Abstract Oil Painting of a very beloved pet dog

It was terribly emotional working on a lost, cherished pet but I was really proud to have been asked to produce not one but two portraits of this handsome hound.

 

Ode to Bud

Bud, a gorgeous little Yorkshire Terrier, lived locally to me but was killed suddenly in an attack by another dog.  As you can imagine, it’s been very emotional and very traumatic for his owners. To remember poor Bud, they got in touch to ask if I would produce a portrait of him on slate; they had another artist who had produced an image of another of their dogs on slate so they wanted it to match.  The beautiful photo supplied and the finished portrait below.

It’s funny how, when you are in such a dark place, the little things can mean so much.  Would you believe that I actually found some slate up at the farm where I keep my horse that was suitable to use?  The owners were delighted and took it as a sign that someone was looking out for her. This was my first commission onto slate, although I had painted one of my own cat on slate when we lost him and also for a friend where I keep my horse, so not commissions.  It was an honour for this owner to have faith in me to produce onto a medium I wasnt used to.

Such a sad story but I’m pleased to help them remember the good times with little Bud.  A wonderful comment made by the owners was ‘that I had brought Bud back to them’.

 

 Would you like to commission a pet portrait?

If you’ve just enjoyed looking at these gorgeous canines, you might enjoy scrolling through my online gallery of other dog portraits, here.

But, if you’re thinking about commissioning something yourself, or you want to know more about the difference between watercolour and oil portraits, please do have a read here.

 

 

 

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