German Shepherd Portrait

Elsa Marie
2008
16 x 20
Commission



I finished this painting today and I sure am glad that it is done. It took about 30 hours over 3 weeks. I used my own photo as a reference. I am doing another 16 x 20 German Shepherd for the same customer. Sophia will be a bit more challenging because I will work from old, less than perfect photos, since she is no longer with us. I guess I am a portrait artist now! :)

Tomorrow my show starts at the Gallery at the Mill House in Chester CT. For more information got to MILL HOUSE. My art will be on display there for the month of October, with an opening reception Saturday, Oct. 4, from 2 - 5. Sunday I plan on displaying prints, note cards and a few paintings at the New Hartford Festival of Arts, on Main Street in the center of New Hartford. Yesterday I met with the staff of Piccolo's restaurant in Farmington and made plans to display my art there and at the Peppercorn Grill in Hartford, starting in November. I am in the process of having giclee prints made of some of my favorite bird paintings, and I have sold three paintings in the last 10 days! So, the lack of posts on this blog is because I am crazy busy being an artist and promoting my work, and occasionally acknowledging my family, not because I am slacking off!

Pumpkins, Pets and Playing Cards

I finished this painting yesterday. It is a 5 x 7 commission for Newt's Playing cards, and they now own this image and the painting. This is the 5th painting I have done for them to use as the card back of decks of playing cards. This deck is called "Pampered Pets of Pickaway County". It is still in the production stage and won't be out for months. They hope to make lots of decks like these as fundraisers for animal shelters and humane societies. I plan on having some for sale when they are done.

This is a 5 x 7 painting of the Ponce Lighthouse in Florida, painted for Newt's lighthouse deck. I painted this in May and these cards won't be available for a few months either. I'll post when I have them for sale.

(Update - January 2009 - Lighthouse deck available!)

I like this painting and deck best so far. It is the "Vintage Pumpkin Deck" and I was more creatively involved in the composition of the painting, another 5 x 7. I researched vintage tractors and looked at lots of pumpkins before painting. I like the pumpkin art images on the fronts of the cards. You can learn more about this deck and see some of the art by going to Newt's Cards. This deck has already been produced and I am selling them for $5.99 each, same as Newt's Cards does. The smaller picture shows the card back now that they put the title and "Pumpkins" on it.

The second card back I did for Newt's was for the Delphos Canal Commission Museum. The cards are a fund raiser and sell for $10 a piece by the museum. It was a little different taking a very horizontal building and putting it into a vertical painting. That is why there is so much sky.

Newt's Cards used this image as the back for the the Cumming County Historical Society playing card deck, another fund raiser. The museum used to be a train depot and still has a caboose.

Keep Newt's Cards in mind if you need a different kind of fund raiser for your organization or club.