Puppy Painting

This puppy was painted in a shoe store in a large Auckland Mall and as soon as it was done a second, larger puppy was painted in another shoe store 100 metres away in the same Mall.
A really busy week lost in the close examination of puppy fur and earth colours.

 The second puppy. ..

..

Dog Painting

 The dog finished before distressing. I attacked it with sandpaper and scrapers which was fun. This is a brand and had to be done just so and in a tight time frame. It was great to be back on a building site with all the tradesmen and their cheerful energy and also great to have a visit to Wellington where I grew up and where this is located in the heart of the city.

 Day one. Drawing up the puppy 
Below, the finished puppy, distressed and aged and ready to sell shoes and finished a day ahead of schedule..Aren't we good wee doggies?

Cat and Dog Painting

 A memorial to my nemisis and favourite sparring partner, Clyde the Siamese cat (born in the mists of time, died 2012) is painted on the 1925 Grocery mural.. Sally's little fluff-ball of a dog has every right to look slightly perturbed.  Clyde was more than a match for any dog and reigned supreme in his day.

Drawing Horses; Blue, the Beautiful Old Bearded Lady

Blue the 24 year old Clydesdale out at Ruthies Animal Farm is dying, she's got tumours and is listless, in pain and losing weight.  She will be put down next week and buried in the front paddock near the farmhouse.

She is not looking good health-wise but is still so beautiful.

We took a bag of carrots and spent some time with Blue and took a bunch of photos of her.

She enjoyed the visit and we shared some moments which was nice. She likes me. I'm gonna miss her.

Angel

Out at Ruthies animal farm I set out with the sketch book to draw the horses but was sidetracked by Angel, the eleven year old cow, down in the ditch beside the old railway embankment eating hay.
She is huge, must be over a ton, looks like a bull and people make jokes about reporting her to the SPCA because of obesity.

A Death in the Family

Eddie, my main man, in better days.
Only nine years old he fell to a heart condition
Too soon, way too soon.
There is an emptiness in the house..

Poor Paddy is devastated, missing his energetic little buddy

The artist's best friend is now a two dimensional image and a wee mound under the the Yuccas

Horses

Walking the dogs along the riverbank I saw two horses on the other bank, walked home for a sketch book and came back to find this critter in the same pose that attracted my attention and did a few fast drawings. The horse knew we were there. Wasn't too good at keeping still.


This is my favourite horse; Chase. A Clydesdale thoroughbred cross. Stroppy and naughty like a teenager. He would make a great hunter but for me he is a model, or will be when he gets his Winter cover off. I don't ride but I like horses for their mythical beast quality, the atavistic living metaphor. I don't know what they are a metaphor for (meta44) but they touch a chord in me.

Printmaking on Perspex. Nigel the Siamese Cat.

This week I got to make a print of Nigel the skeletal Siamese cat. I had done a nice drawing of him sitting in the sun and I thought how easy he would be to print with just burnt umber.
Dry point on a prepared piece of perspex and I managed to get three good prints off it using burnt umber and black before running out of steam.
I touched up the prints after with a little black pastel and sienna acrylic paint with clear medium which is cheating I know but you won't tell on me will you?

Horse Portraits

At a birthday party last weekend the horses were put at the far end of the property on a rise covered with pines away from the noise of the festivities.
They'd naught to eat in there and early the next morning a few early risers let the horses into the home paddock for their brekkie.
I wandered in there with the sketch book and followed this young dun mare all around to get this drawing.

The Horse Mural

Girl Friday and I are taking a break from building and fundraising for Art School Waihi to paint a mural for Ruthies animal farm. The mural is all about horses.

Girl Friday is here working on her very first mural, designing and painting the swallows that live outside the Animal Farm kitchen.
Initial overall design of the mural is lined in and two portraits of Holly the horse painted, one abstract and one realist
Girl Friday's swallows as we left them, unfinished, at the end of two days painting.

Portraits of Children 2; Enter the Rat ! !

Soraya, Stardust and Winona

I can use this and two other photos to get the second portrait right. I was hoping to draw a finished portrait from life but that dream, like many another, ended up in the too hard basket.

Here I am on Easter Monday hard at work tuning up the portrait of Winona I began on Easter Saturday.
Soraya has grabbed my camera, Winona stole and hid my clip on sunnies and I must fondle a rat in a desperate attempt to coax a little girl to SIT STILL!!!
No way.
I count myself lucky I was able to coax Winona into sitting for a photo for the several seconds she begrudgingly favoured me with.

The Weekly Portrait: our model's dog

Last night at life drawing class Georgia suggested I draw her dog.

In terms of keeping still the wee dog was a terrible model but a real little sweetheart that fitted right in the casual and friendly atmosphere of the class.