Kimba in the Bush

Kimba from Wellington

Painting Kimba was a bit of a challenge firstly as the picture I had to work from was quite blurry and did not show much detail. I had to look online for clearer pictures of similar looking dogs to give me a better idea of facial detail. Hopefully I managed to capture Kimba well enough. Secondly Kimba’s owner wanted her in the bush which I hadn’t done before. Again I used the palette knife for the background on this one to create texture. It was an interesting challenge, but certainly worthwhile to take note for future paintings that the clearer the picture, the easier it will be to put in all those details. Anyway, I think Kimba turned out pretty well in the end. Now she’s just sitting above my laptop station staring at me waiting to be posted to her owner 😉

Introducing Lippy Lizard

Lippy from Matamata

I got my wish of painting another new and interesting creature sooner than I thought! A blue tongued lizard all the way in Matamata. There are not too many artworks of blue tongued lizards or images of their footprint online to base my work on so I had to come up with the best way to do this painting. I decided to give it a textured background for the grass and contrast it with a smooth and detailed painting of the lizard. It was a fun and interesting challenge and I hope that Lippy’s owner will be happy with the result.

Zoey the Neighbourly pet goat

Zoey from Palmerston North

So I decided to put the word out on my Neighbourly site. And Priscilla responded by requesting for her pet goat Zoey to be painted. My husband said that he would have thought it was a joke if it had not been paid for! I wonder what I will get to paint next? A goldfish? A hamster? A pet spider? I’m certainly hooked that’s for sure!

Emmett & Jack

Emmet Mcfly from Wellington

Jack from Wellington

I also had the very enjoyable experience of painting Lisa from Wellington’s pug Emmett and late tabby Jack. It was so much fun working with her and to see how much she loved it gave me such joy. She asked for Jack’s chewed up ear to be restored in the painting and I did that for her. Now they both sit side by side on her wall together with her grandmother’s painting of a horse.

Regal Dan

Dan from Taupo

Taryn from Taupo responded to my Facebook post and gave me the privilege of painting her very regal looking dog Dan. This painting is one of my favourite and sealed for me my love of painting animals especially dogs. It made me seriously consider painting for a living. But more than that just seeing how much pleasure it brought their owners was definitely something special. Which is why I thought to myself, I would like to always make it as affordable as possible for most people to get a painting of their beloved pet.

Alfie my first Trademe customer

Alfie from Christchurch

Alfie was my first customer outside of my friends and family circle.

Cosmo the Cat

Cosmo from the UK

I decided to paint my sister and brother in-law’s cat as a gift for them for Christmas after my first attempt at painting a cat was not up to my satisfaction. I’ve definitely learned from my mistakes and really enjoyed painting Cosmo. It was after this painting that I thought perhaps I actually might have some some talent here and wanted to develop my skills of painting animals even further.

Thank you Yvonne & Cole

This is my very first attempt at painting a cat. Thank you Yvonne for being so encouraging and believing in me. I was not completely happy with it myself, so I will definitely be painting you another one now that my skills have been refined! I would have never discovered my love of painting animals had it not been for you and Cole.

The Beginnings of Pet Paintings

Last Christmas we were disappointed that Grandpa Grapentin’s application to visit us was turned down due to his health. We decided that since he will never be able to visit us, we must instead make the trip out to see him with our 5 children (2 of whom he has never met). Due to the cost of travelling for a family of 7 being so enormous, we decided we would fundraise. The girls did some paintings and we decided we would sell them and some of mine as well. And then we decided to paint grandpa a German Shepherd which he loves and the children’s aunt and uncle their cat Cosmo. And it has just taken off from there.