Biscuit’s owner was keen to keep the ball in the picture as Biscuit is never without it! However it at odds with the rest of the painting…so i’ve put my ‘artistic licence’ to good use in moving it and making it yellow so that it matched the colour scheme a little more!

A memorial painting of a much loved companion. It’s nice to think that these little paintings bring people such joy, I hope that when they look at them they allow themselves to relive the happy times they spent with their pet.

To you, the viewer, it is a picture of a happy dog…me - I see a thousand tiny decisions…each mark I make I am choosing- the colour the angle and the direction. Painting can be far from relaxing sometimes - every mark you make has the potential to make or break a painting.

Compare the painting to the original photo in the post and spot the very big difference!

I’d love to have great images to work with every time- but it doesn’t always work like that! These pictures were taken about 30 years ago so there is no chance of getting any better ones!

Trying to capture that ‘winning smile’ and keeping some of the edges loose and blurry to suggest excitement and movement.

Tipper looks like one of those dogs that seems to understand everything you’re saying…don’t you just wish they could talk!

This is ‘Dolly’, founder member of an organic dairy herd in Somerset! Set against ‘Glastonbury Tor’, an iconic landmark that can be seen from most of the fields in which the cows graze. Any more unusual animals you want to throw at me folks?? - I’m game if you are!

Best Buddies.

It adds so much to the painting if the owner can also remember the place, and the moment the picture was taken. It helps place the animal and the time spent with it, in the timeline of your life and that makes it even more meaningful. Even wallpaper can bring back happy memories!

This is Eddy, brother of Olive …also taken in a brightly coloured car. I figured that this was significant to the owner and that the car should feature heavily in each instance.

These 2 look like kids playing musical chairs at a party…you know how one kid has the chair and the other manages to wedge their bum on the side and try to claim that they were there first!

I really enjoy painting in the eyes and making them come alive, it’s usually the first thing I do in the portrait. They can look quite simple close up yet sparkle from further away.

I try, where possible not to blend the colours, but to consciously place them, building up the shapes till the jigsaw puzzle is complete!

A new challenge - combining the body of one photo with the more ‘in-focus’ face of another!

I’m loving this little guy with his toy Elephant! Wishing i could have kept this one!

This one was a challenge, partly because it was a black animal (always tricky) but mainly because I really wanted to catch the beautiful ‘golden hour’ light.  

‘Discover Gather Give’ is an arts fair that is usually held in Stratford-upon-Avon Town Hall. This year, due to COVID restrictions they have taken it online.

Raffy’s favourite place to sleep is on Molly’s chair in the spare room, sunbathing and looking out over the garden.  The chair took as long to paint as the cat did - but it makes it extra special as it once belonged to Molly.

I wanted to experiment with painting bubbles! I started by using acrylic inks on the surface of the board, sprayed with water, blew the mixture around with a straw then let it dry. Then I used a circle template to pick out the best bubbles!