A custom painting I finished recently -- a Weimaraner puppy in his "SpiderMax" suit

This is Max in his "SpiderMax" costume.  He's a weimaraner pup who likes to dress up!  It's a custom painting I finished very recently and hadn't had time to upload until now.  Obviously, he's sold already!  He's a beautiful puppy, I must say.

I'm Still Here! In Florida, that is

Believe it or not, I'm still trying to settle into a new life here in Central Florida after two months.  I've kind of found my way around but actually am preferring to stay right on my own little piece of land and play with gardening.  And now I understand why there are so many snowbirds alighting here each winter:  This place is heavenly -- this time of year, at least!  I sat outside for hours a couple of days ago, in November!!!, without even a sweater, and watched the sun go down.  It is beautiful beyond words here, and really, the weather is perfect!  Neither too cold nor too hot.  And the colors!  You wouldn't believe the colors of the sky, the trees, the shadows - it makes me wish I were a writer so I could describe them vividly for you.  Soon, very soon, I'm going to have my schedule cleared enough that I can start doing some paintings of this region of the world.

In the meantime, though, I am overloaded with commissioned paintings that all have a looming deadline.  The painting shown here is one of two that I did for a client very recently.  This is a beautiful Rhodesian ridgeback, named Matilda.  Her adopted brother, Henry, a handsome weimaraner, will be shown in my next blog entry.

I've been thinking a lot lately and reading a lot, too.  Yes, I know I should be painting, but one has to take a break from time to time.  One of the thought-provoking things I read is a biweekly newsletter all about art and life, too, because they're closely intertwined.  It starts with an interesting, thought-provoking essay and is followed by comments from fellow artists, including examples of their work.  I look forward to it twice a week.  I may have mentioned this newsletter before, but it merits another mention if I have.  Here's the address:  http://painterskeys.com/, and it's hosted by artist Robert Genn.  To receive the newsletter, you have to actually request it at the site and confirm your request through the email you'll receive.  I very highly recommend it.

Also, artists can pay to have their artwork featured through the website, and I was just randomly looking through some of the artists' listings and came across this artist:  http://painterskeys.com/pal/christine_hanlon/ - and was just blown away by her work.  What a great inspiring artist this person is!  And I discovered this person literally by just a random click on a name.  Give her work a look if you have the time; you won't be sorry you took the time.

Okay, speaking of time, I guess I better get back to my own paintings!

What do you know about 1000 Markets?

1000 Markets

Dottie Dracos, Animal Artist

Visit the Shop

This is a link to an online venue, "1000 Markets," that I'm giving a try.  If anyone out there has any experience, positive or negative with it, I would love to hear from you.

Great Pyrenees Portrait

This Great Pyrenees painting is one that I just finished this past week.  I'm quite happy with it.  They're beautiful dogs.  Nothing more I can say.

It's painted from a photo submitted by a customer.  Hope you like it.

Golden Retriever with Ball

This is a painting I just finished today, and I really like it.  For me, it is a wild departure, though, which made me really uncomfortable, I'm afraid.  It's a bit more abstract than most of my dog paintings, but I think I needed to do this - be a bit more spontaneous, that is, in doing the painting.  Scary!

It's 16x20x3/4", staple-free sides, wired and ready to hang -- Sorry, this painting has sold. 

I should mention that, actually:  I sometimes mention here that certain paintings are for sale.  As my paintings are also shown in other venues, I cannot promise that they'll always be available if listed here.  So if you're interested in a painting, just email me to check on its availability.

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Ruby

This is a ruby Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that I painted recently for a customer.  The original is sold, but there are prints and pendants available.

I'm going to be posting quite a few images this evening, but I don't know if they'll be in the order I produced them because I've been really busy lately and haven't had a chance even to think!  Just paint.  They're all within two or three weeks of each other, though, and I'll try to keep them somewhat in a chronological order -- if that matters. 

Oh, regarding my endeavors to be looser and brighter, it's meeting with only limited success.  I manage to do one like that, and then I'm back to painting individual hairs and worrying about being nearly photo-realistic again.  Gotta loosen up! 

Red Australian Shepherd

This is a commissioned painting I finished about a week ago -- I've been really busy with commissions lately.  That's why I haven't posted much lately.

This girl's painting was a Mother's Day gift for a customer of mine.  I think she turned out very nicely.

Obviously, the original is gone, but you can get prints and pendants on my website.

Brindle Pug Painting

This is a sweet pug painting I recently completed from photos submitted by a customer.  She said she never sees any brindle pug artwork anywhere, and now I understand why.  It was really hard to get the brindle "feel" in the painting without trying to paint every hair -- which is what I'm trying to learn to avoid!

The original is a bit different from this 8x10" image in that it's on a 24x24" canvas.  It is for sale.  Contact me if you're interested. 

German Shepherd Profile

And last for today -- but definitely not least!! - is this German Shepherd painting I did just two days ago.  Now, I feel that I'm really starting to change.  I feel that I captured the "shepherdness" of this dog (her name is Zoey, and I'm doing another painting of her as a commission for her mom) but gave her a lot, lot more life than many of my more serious paintings had (in my opinion), and yet with the bright background, gave her some playfulness, too, without taking away from her beauty at all.  Again, this painting makes me smile.  I would hang this one in my living room even if I didn't have a German shepherd, just because I like the looks of the painting.  That's a good thing.  I like this direction.  I dooooooo hope I keep it up (fingers crossed -- much too tightly!). 

I'm currently working on a really, really hard painting:  a brindle pug.  I've had a few pretty good paintings over the past few ones, and now I'm nervous.  Can I keep up the momentum of change?  Or will I choke?  Seriously, this becoming the best painting I can is the hardest endeavor I've ever, ever taken on in my whole life -- and I've taken on some doozy challenges, I promise you.  They all pale in comparison to this one. 

What do you think about my new direction?