Portraits for Mary

When I recently started doing pet portraits, at first I wasn't sure whether I would like doing it or not. What I did know is that, as an artist, I have to be creative and versatile in the ways in which I make my income. I also knew that I had to be true to my own style, which is very illustrative.

I had a lot of fun painting my cat, and Ryan's squish bunny, but then I did a portrait of Diego. His mama was so incredibly happy when she saw the finished painting. Seeing her reaction told me all I needed to know--this is something I would like to keep doing, something fun, worthwhile, creative, profitable, and on top of all of that it is a great way of closely connecting with other people and making them happy.

Of course, I love painting people as well, and how could I resist doing this painting of my friend Mary's parents in their awesome 70's wedding photo?!?

I did a pet portrait for her as well, her sweet dog Simba:

Custom Pet Portraits

Speaking of animals (in my previous post), I am now offering custom pet portraits! These are not your typical portraits, either. They are ultra-rad pet portraits done in my own uniquely stylized hand. The above example is my own sweet tubby kitty, Maya, but no matter whether your pet is a rat, a bunny, or a dog, I promise you will love your pet's portrait. More examples are coming soon! Let me know if you live in Portland and I will give you a great discount for being able to skip the shipping.

Portraiture & Contest!

Last year around this time, I was painting this. A portrait of my good friend Alisha Marchewka. She is a high school art teacher, and a brilliant artist. So she came up with the idea of painting portraits of each other and exchanging them as holiday presents. Fun! I will have to take a picture of the one she did of me as well--it is really awesome!

I am obviously by no means a photo-realist when it comes to painting. I have the ability to do a pretty life-like rendering if necessary, but it's really just not something that I enjoy. I do, however, love painting people, and as you can see from most of my work it is very figurative. Usually the people I paint are in my head, but I have been thinking a lot lately about doing more portraits. Some that I just randomly want to make, but also custom portraits.

What I would be offering would not be traditional portraiture. It would be highly stylized, like the one above (keep in mind that I know Alisha well & put some of her personality into the painting, which I may not be able to do as much with strangers), or like this one.

Alright, now that you've seen some examples, take a look at the poll at the top right of my blog and cast your vote! Then put a comment in this post to let me know that you voted. On November 23, I will randomly choose 1 voter, who will win a free owl pendant! Thanks for the input!

Portraits make great presents!

One of my very best friends, Katie, got married recently. Though she is a couple years younger than me, we went to high school together in Denver, and moved to Portland together over a decade ago. (!) As I sifted through her wedding registry, looking at all of the dinnerware and towels, I thought, these are all really nice, and I know she wants them, but she and I have been through way too much together for me to just buy her a cup or a toaster and feel good about it. So instead I dug out all of my photos and found a very cute (albeit dark--it was taken in a bar) pic of them, and painted their portrait. I just finished it this morning, and I am soooo exited to give it to them! It's not a complete surprise--I didn't tell her EXACTLY what it was, but I did have to email her (embarassingly) to make sure I got their eye color right. It is acrylic paint on paper--I'm going to mount it on wood before I give it to them. I hope they like it!