pet portrait artist Archives – Celebrating Color

Lessons Learned from Our 4-Legged Friends

July 2, 2015 By Carol McIntyre

As a kid, my experience with animals was a mixed bag because one cat died in surgery, a dog was killed by a car, and several other mishaps with rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, turtles, and seahorses occurred. Consequently, I never fully understood or appreciated the role that pets can play in our lives. Then I met Bob, husband of the artist, and discovered he is part-cat. For his birthday, early in our now 32+ year marriage, I bought him a Tonkinese kitten with compelling turquoise eyes we named Polaris.

Polaris carried us through the illness and early death of Bob’s beloved mother (who is responsible for re-igniting my art after letting it lie for over 15 years), and our move from Minnesota to Colorado, plus traversing many other of life’s hills and valleys. Bottom line, Polaris converted me into a cat lover. He gave us 19 years of entertainment and comfort. In addition, he was one handsome intelligent sock catching dude who loved being a single cat — no siblings necessary, thank you very much.

When we arrived in CO in 2004, home of the largest ratio of humans to dogs in the country (bet you didn’t know that), I became friends of many people who are avid dog lovers. I have to confess that I had a slight fear of dogs and really didn’t get the “human’s best friend” mantra. I started hearing the statement, “they teach us many things,” though no one ever elaborated on these lessons. “Really?” I said to my skeptical self.

Then in 2010, along came my wonder rescue dog – my shadow – Kyla. Okay, I said to myself, so what are these so-called lessons? Were they in a document somewhere that I missed along the way?

It didn’t take long before I was calling Kyla my “anti-depressant.” How could I not grin when she came running to me with her ear-to-ear smile or hear that early morning “thump, thump, thump” of her voluminous fox-like tail every day? Then the unconditional love began hitting me between the eyes and deep into my heart.

Okay, I get it! though I sensed there was more. Our orange cats, Paynter and Redd, had arrived earlier in 2006. I saw two unrelated cats become soul mates and inseparable brothers. We have copious photos of them intertwined, hugging, licking and reaching out to reach other. It was shear pleasure watching them love each other.

Our loss of our dear sweet Redd this past week is the inspiration for this blog post. He was with us for only 9 years and an important family member. Our hearts ache as we process the hole he left in our lives. His loss gave me pause to revisit the subject of “lessons learned.” In addition to those mentioned above, what have I learned, or at least observed, from our critters?

The other lessons I have learned from Polaris, Paynter, Redd and Kyla:

They know how to live in the moment (I happen to believe they are better teachers than all of the gurus out there preaching it);
They role-model how to meditate (I haven’t learned this skill quite yet and appreciate their constant reminders);
Love is in abundance and has no boundaries;
Patience isn’t a virtue (cat lesson);
Patience is a virtue (dog lesson);
You, the human, are loved even if you do give me dumb food or forget to clean the littler box or I don’t get my daily walk;
Smiling and laughing are contagious;
Critter and humans do communicate with each other;
Fury friends make yummy warm blankets;
Owners are not always smarter than their pets;
Loyalty;
Play and rest are life essentials;
…and that they worth the occasional vet bill, spit-up, broken dish, and worry when they escape the fence.

I am sure there are more lessons. Please share the lessons you have learned

from your beloved 4-leggeds.

Over the years, I have attempted to capture the spirit of each of our beloved critters with color and paint. I am so glad we have these, as is Bob, because the paintings spark delightful memories and reminders of lessons we haves learned.

You may be wondering why I am writing about our pets and not my latest art work…?

Life is art; it often informs my artmaking.

Observing and feeling my world is what inspires my creativity. Often life’s events spark a series of paintings. For example, after double jaw surgery five years ago, I created an eight painting series, entitled, “Celebrating Air!” Because the surgery opened my tiny airway, I no longer suffered from sleep apnea. I could not have predicted the subject matter for this series – air bubbles – nor that I would even paint about the surgery until I had started my recovery process. It was a lovely surprise.

As artists, one of our roles can be to bring attention to subject matter and emotional content the average person takes for granted or just doesn’t consider. Through our observation skills and heart, we can visually communicate these findings and help change the world.

This topic reminds me of the well-known quote of Georgia O’Keeffe, Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven’t time, and to see takes time – like to have a friend takes time. Then add this related quote of hers, I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking the time to look at it – I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers. Her observations communicated with paint, altered and still alters people’s view of the world.

How has life informed or inspired your work? What events or observations have you made that have sparked your creativity?

Post Script. The is my husband’s eulogy for Redd:

This has been a rough week for both artist and husband of artist. We had to bid goodbye to our loyal friend Redd, studio cat shown above. Tears have flowed. He was a conveyor of sweetness and love, and steadfast companion to us all. Redd had a becalming way about him that always said, “Never fear, the love guy is here.”

Redd’s brain was a little scrambled, we think, due a severe fever as a kitten and probably the cause of his premature death. One of my nicknames for him was Forrest (as in Gump), and he was the epitome of that character’s simplicity, mixed with gentleness and caring. He survived, mostly due to his adopted big brother’s maternal attention.

Redd never knew a lap he didn’t like, including complete strangers. It is with great sadness, but celebration of his life, that we honor the life giving tonic that these creatures give us. The incredible joy and energy they bring to our lives makes it all worthwhile.

As always, if you enjoyed this blog post, please share it.

Watch the Custom Horse Painting Demo of ‘River’ | Stage 5

February 19, 2015 By Carol McIntyre

In stage 4 (see below)of this custom horse painting of ‘River,’ he was coming to life but still looking a little naked – definitely bald – without his tail an mane.

I had been wondering how the entire painting would alter in feel once they were added. However, before I added his flowing tail and mane (and it was difficult resisting from doing so. I wanted to see the cherry on top too! LOL!), I had to make several adjustments in the background and on his body. I like to call it fine tuning. By the way, fine tuning does take several hours. Much of the time is standing back away from the painting and assessing what needs to be tweaked. I also walk back and forth fairly often.

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Watch the Custom Horse Painting Demo of ‘River’ | Stage 3

February 7, 2015 By Carol McIntyre

Up to this point, River has been looking a little awkward – much like an adolescent. He needs beefing up and this is what normally happens as a painting develops. When you last saw him, see below looked a little anemic and not quite together — kind of like an overgrown colt…?? Please visit Stage 2 blog post of River to see earlier stages of the painting.

As I add more paint, I am developing the lights and darks on his body, which are starting to show off his muscles and his power. I also widened his head and moved his ears. Is he starting to look more like River?
I am also softening the background colors and below you see that these colors are starting to gradate or blend more into each other. Meanwhile, I have been playing Karen Carpenter songs as I paint. Apparently River loved her songs and listening to Beth sing them to him. How cool is that!

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Watch the Horse Painting Demo of ‘River’ | Stage 2

February 6, 2015 By Carol McIntyre

In stage two of this commissioned painting, I am building layers in the background while simultaneously surrounding River with paint. I am sure you can see River popping out. My diagonal and sweeping strokes are more obvious to convey that he will be coming out of something (we are not sure what yet….stay tuned!). Let me know if you like the direction this is going. Also, do I have the gold colors in the correct location? The strokes in that area were quite intuitive. custom horse painting demo

This custom horse painting demo continues with applying paint onto River. I am starting to make him look three-dimensional or have some volume.

Now it is time to start adjusting River’s ears, location of his eye and the action of his legs. I am also wondering if his head is too narrow.Specific input from Beth is welcome and needed at this stage of the game. Though it is not obvious in this photo, I continue to add thin layers of paint on the background.

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An Artist’s Demo Inspires Me to Paint Patches

April 6, 2011 By Carol McIntyre

Last Saturday, the Saks Galleries of Denver, invited people to attend a demonstration by Michelle Torrez, a highly acclaimed artist. Her subjects are most often dancers or people moving, and her brush strokes are very expressive. Since Denver is only an hours drive away, I decided to take advantage of this opportunity.

“Patches”-14×11 oil with brush (click to enlarge)

My preferred tool is the palette knife because I like the physicality of it, the ease of cleaning it and the textures I can achieve with it. Brushes are my secondary tool (and I hate cleaning them!). Michelle used a 3/4″ filbert brush for her demo on a small canvas – approximately 16×8. Since our approaches are quite different, why did I want to watch Torrez paint?

Viewing how another artist paints has always been fascinating to me. I believe, Differences are what makes the world goes around, and I like to experience another perspective. There is always something to gain and life long learning is one of my values.

As a result of watching Torrez hold onto her brush at the very end of the brush and essentially dance across the canvas, I thought I should give it the old college try. Just as my ease of using the palette knife is due to painting only with the knife for an entire year (no brushes allowed!), I know I cannot pick up the brush and paint as Michelle paints. She is efficient with her tool much as a concert pianist moves her fingers up and down the key board.

I decided to try painting a portrait of Patches, a dog owned by a friend of ours. I figured it was a place to start even though Patches is not ‘dancing.’ It was important that I keep my hand off of my palette knife the entire time and only use my brushes.

Below I show the painting stages of Patches:

Drawing of Patches on canvas

1. This is the drawing on a 14×11 canvas – which was not textured with gesso and I do that on almost all of my canvases. I used a pastel pencil.

I decided to paint a frame around Patches to give it a more contemporary design. There is no plan at this stage as to how well this will work or not; these are the kinds of challenges I like to present to myself.

First layer of paint

2. Here is the first layer of paint. Yellow was applied in most of the highlighted areas because it is a warm color. It is also a good base for the butterscotch hair color. Also, Patches’ dog tag is bright yellow and I knew I had to incorporate this color in the painting. Purples were used because they are the opposite of yellow on the color wheel. I wanted to get the darkest darks – purple – painted at this stage.

I have been diligent in using a brush, but I am finding it difficult to hold it at the very end.

You can see that I am experimenting with the color of the frame. As I started painting the frame, I decided that it would be fun to have some of Patches hair flow over the edge of the bottom. Who would’ve thought?

Second layer of paint

3. Because Patches is basically a light colored dog, I painted the immediate background a dark warm purple to make her pop. The entire eyeball is painted black and this is the ONLY place I use black in a painting. I much prefer to mix my blacks because those are richer colors.

Unlike Michelle, I am not able to use only one large brush on this small canvas. It will take practice and I think if I had a moving subject to paint, my strokes would be more gestural.

Patches still looks a little scary at this point! By the way, she is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

Making Patches feel more 3-D

4. In all of my pet portraits, I want you feel like you could go in and pet the animal, hence I want it to be as three-dimensional as possible. You can see various colors of “white” to give Patches a round head, nose, etc. I am staying away from the eyes because that is dessert for me!

The frame is a mix of many of the colors I have been using in my palette, but staying a mid-gray. I cannot seem to get an much paint on my brush as Torrez does. Hmmmm, what to do?

Patches eyes painted – I love painting a dog’s eyes

5. Patches’ eyes are nearly finished. Eyes to me are like marbles and that is what I think of as I paint them.

I am trying to incorporate many different colors into Patches’ hair. Note that the shadows are a pale blue-purple versus a boring gray.

The yellow tag is bugging me because it is standing out too much even though I have softened the edges. I need to integrate more yellow into the rest of the painting.

One of the key techniques I learned from Michelle, was watching her use hard and soft edges throughout her painting. I see that there are some edges I want to soften; this will also make Patches seem softer and more real because dogs are soft!

“Patches” finished and ready to be signed. (click to enlarge)

“Patches” is completed. The frame has more painterly strokes and I incorporated more colors in it as well as in her hair. Doesn’t the frame also have a ‘patchy’ look? 🙂 Yellow is integrated throughout but that is difficult to see in this digital image. I was going to paint cast shadows of Patches’ hair hanging over the frame, but decided that that was not necessary.

The finished product is not a Michelle Torrez – and I don’t want it to be – but I enjoyed the process and learned a lot.

Now I need to find out what Patches’ mom, Pat, thinks of the painting and if Patches needs any tweaks. She does not know that I am immortalizing her beloved pet.

Stay tuned…