My Neighbor's Yellow Labrador Retriever

This is Harper!  She is a beautiful yellow lab belonging to my neighbor.  She patiently sits every day outside her home to greet every walker. Her "dad" gave me permission to do a painting of her, and I really do appreciate it.  She was a pleasure to paint.

A Lab Mix Custom Painting I just finished

This is a painting I just finished for a client.  Her name is Molly, and she is a beloved family member.  The green faceless frog to her right is her favorite toy - hence, the lack of facial features that she has lovingly, I'm sure, removed.  It was a really fun painting, one of those that nearly painted itself.  Just for fun, I've also attached the photo I worked from.  You can see the black lines at the bottom of the photo where I'm adding in the rest of her face just for a better composition.  Also, I changed her body entirely to make for a cuter composition and "story."  So, as you can see, I work closely, but not slavishly, with photos.  Creativity must be a strong component of artwork.  Otherwise, it wouldn't be art, would it?

I'm currently working on two more commissioned paintings for a client of her two sweeties, a weimaraner named Henry and a Rhodesian ridgeback (one of my favorite breeds as I've had two myself), named Matilda.  I'll try to include their photos and maybe some interim shots of the paintings, too, just so you (and I)can see my painting process.  (I just know there's some sort of method to my painting style if I record the process often enough!)

Regarding my recent move - obviously, off the subject of this post and even of this blog - but I just want to talk about it a little, anyway.  I'll do so in the next post.

Yellow Lab Puppy

Here's my latest painting I've done. It's been a while since I've been able to paint due to the ill health of a family member, but now I'm back at it again!

This little yellow lab is a brave, exciting new direction for me: larger canvases. He's acrylic on 24x30" canvas and sells for $400.00. He can be seen "in dog" at Club K-9, 7427 N Curtis Ave., Portland, Oregon , 97217, Phone: 503-289-7472.

Prints are also available at my website, www.dottiedracos.com or www.wildwildthings.com.

A recently completed commission - Bowzer

Here's Bowzer, a beautiful lab. He was painted on for me a rather large canvas, 24x30". He was a wonderful model, I think. He's already sold, but he's available as a clock on my website, www.dottiedracos.com.

For the next few weeks, in addition to completing more commissioned paintings, I'll be doing a separate group of what I hope are really fun paintings for a little showing at a great coffee shop here in Beaverton, OR, the Iron Mutt. It should be fun; they'll all be for sale. And some of the proceeds from the sales go to area animal shelters, such as Bonnie Hayes, where we adopted our most recent family member, our pomeranian, Harry P. Barker, Harry for short.

Morty 11/2/07

This is a great dog I just painted; his name is Morty. I don't know what breed he is, maybe part lab?, but I think he's beautiful. He's listed on my Originals page on my website, he's painted on hardboard, 5x6.5x1.5", and sells for $45.00, plus shipping.