A Ewe and her two babies, A mother sheep and her two lambs

Mother Ewe and her two baby Lambs

This is a painting I finished very recently.  I created it from photos kindly lent to me by a sheep and goat farmer who lives near me.  I'm not mentioning her name because I didn't ask for permission.  But I do thank her.

I've finally started doing many of my paintings in oil.  I love how it flows, but I'm still having a problem with messing areas I've already painted because it dries much more slowly than acrylic paints do.  I think, too, that the colors are more true after the painting has dried.

Curious Grey Horse, Blue Sky Background

This is a horse painting I just finished, an acrylic painting on a 24x30x2" gallery-wrapped canvas.  Prints and the original are for sale.

As I've probably stated before, I'm doing more and more farm animal paintings and am loving learning new animal anatomy.  Hope you like it!

As Promised, Here's the first of the Cashmere Goat Paintings

Here's "Snowflake."  My granddaughter very aptly named her, I think.  And she's adorable, too, along with the other three:  another white baby, a tan-and-brown one, and a light grey one.

The original acrylic painting is on a 16x20x1/2" stretched canvas, already wired on the back so ready for hanging.

Either the grey or the brown goat will be the next to be painted.  Also, I've come across a beautiful, beautiful Jersey cow, with those enormous, gorgeous eyes, in a field nearby, so I'll be doing a painting of her, too, very soon.

I'm settling in to our new country place, and it feels great to be back painting again.

A Dark Red Cow at Sunset

Sorry, I don't know what breed this cow is.  Perhaps a Salers?  I've titled it "Just before Sunset."  I love the strong contrasts between the sunlit side and the darkly shadowed side.

I painted this cow painting, acrylic, on 11x14 hardboard, using a photo submitted by Gail Klett. Thanks! It was a pleasure to paint it.

Another of my Seven Cow Paintings

This is another of the cow paintings that kept me busy all through the month of April.  There are five more I'll be showing.  This is a Jersey cow.  The original was 30x40 inches and has been sold.

Following this past month's marathon, I figured this is a good time to take a new direction in my artwork.  So in addition to still doing custom animal paintings, and the occasional animal painting from my own photographs, I am making two very (for me) big changes in my artwork:  I am going to be painting primarily landscapes from now on (suggestions welcome!), and I'm switching from acrylics to oils as my medium.

I've been practicing both the new medium and the new subject matter, and there's going to have to be a pretty sharp learning curve for me.  It's a whole new field (no pun intended!), and I'm really excited about it.  Please, if you've followed me mostly because I have painted animals for years, stay with me and see how my new work is going.  Wish me luck on this new chapter in my painting career.

One more thing:  For those of you who know of my past ceramic artwork, I am once again making some ceramic animal masks and will be listing them on Etsy within the following few months.  There will only be a few each month, approximately 10 per month, because I don't want to make them full-time anymore.  But I must admit that I am enjoying the several hours a week I've been spending in my clay studio; it's a welcome break from "my day job."  If you have mask requests, let me know and I'll do my best to create something like what you want.  I am going to be doing a few different types of animals this time:  In addition to the usual dogs and cats (and possibly a few fish), I'm going to be making some cow and rooster masks.  Should be interesting.

A Cute Pig Painting I Finished Recently

At the request of a customer, I painted this sweet-looking pig.  The acrylic painting is 11x14" on wood panel.  Several people recently have asked me what the wood paneling looks like from the side, so I shot this pic of it as the painting sat on my easel.  It frames very nicely, doesn't weigh much, and fits into a mat and/or frame just as a painting on paper would.  I like the smooth hard surface for painting as paint flows very nicely on it.  And since I'm such a stickler for detail, it allows me to get into much greater detail on these relatively small paintings that I like to do than I can do on canvas.

Sorry, the original painting has been sold.

Little Duckling Portrait

Okay, this is the other one I just finished, a sweet little baby duck portrait.  It, too, was a lot of fun.  What more can I say.

Fortunately, summer has finally arrived, so now, instead of staying indoors for large parts of the day to avoid the cold and rain, I have to stay indoors because it's so stinkin' hot!!  I'm not complaining, though; I love it.  It's been a long, long, long winter, and finally, with the rest of the country sweltering, summer has arrived in Oregon!  Horray!

Pygmy Goat on Green Field Painting

This is a painting I finished yesterday.  It's a pygmy goat, who I'm sure is thinking about what she's going to eat next -- the newly planted flowers or the beautiful small pink dogwood tree that I loved so much.  I've had a few of these little adorable and frustrating creatures back when I had a horse farm and lived out in the country, and every day I altered from wanting to make them wear a sign that said, "Free, take me," to hugging them for making me laugh so hard.  And, yes, the one we had the very longest, Sophie, really did eat my poor little dogwood down to a stump -- and my forsythia and all my flowers -- and then went and danced on my beloved Porsche.  And that was all in just one day!

Anyway, the painting is acrylic on an 11x14x3/4" stretched canvas, with the sides painted green, so is ready to hang with or without a frame.  It's available at my website, http://www.dottiedracos.com.  I really like this painting and enjoyed doing it.  Hope you do, too.

American Coopworth Sheep Painting on Green background

This is an 11x14x3/4" acrylic painting of an American Coopworth sheep that I just finished.  Hope you like it.  It's looser than I usually paint, and for me, that's really a good thing.  I think I built up the form of the animal better by seeing and "feeling" the weight of the wool on its body.  It was a good painting day.


The American Coopworth sheep is a breed that was introduced into the USA in the 1970's from its original country of New Zealand. Its wool is especially valued by hand-spinners.  This sheep's portrait, my first painting of a sheep, was a pleasure to paint, and I gave it as much body and weight as I could manage on a two-dimensional surface. I'm looking forward to painting more sheep in the next few weeks.