Custom Portrait: Painting of Three Dogs in a House

Recently, I started painting on site at Canine Action Sports Dog Training Center on Thursday evenings. Since people seem to enjoy watching me paint, and I enjoy painting dogs, it is a great place for me to meet fellow animal lovers who are interested in my work.

One of my biggest fans is the owner of the center, who commissioned me to paint a whimsical painting of her three dogs, Mattie, Rosie and Tasha.



Having seen a drawing that I had made previously, she asked if I could do a similar image with her dogs in the windows of the house. She also requested that the piece be done on a textured wood that adds to the whimsical effect.

My models from the left: Mattie, Rosie and Tasha

I began the painting as I always do, by painting the background black and blocking in colors for the basic shapes. I use a process of building up color by painting many layers of varied colors on top of each other, always leaving some trace of the underneath layers.

As you can see in the last image above, I ended up changing the base of the house, to make the black dog seem a little more plausible. The thinner house base made her head look too big for what we imagine to be her body hidden from view.

It takes many hours to paint a painting such as this, ranging anywhere from 15 to 25 hours and more, depending on the difficulty. This one was a bit more difficult, as it required some detail and had 3 animals featured. As you can suspect, every artist has intense thinking going on during the process, sometimes reflecting joy and confidence; sometimes insecurity and trepidation. It is all a part of the process.

I sometimes "tweet" some of these thoughts on Twitter as I am working. Here are some of my random thoughts that were captured in tweets as I painted this painting:

@BZTAT I'm looking at this painting and thinking...Even a whimsical painting requires some degree of plausibility, and I am not there yet.

@BZTAT When ya gotta sing, ya gotta sing, or in my case, when ya gotta paint, ya gotta paint! (in reply to a message from a musician)

@BZTAT thinks she is really not made out for detail painting. Just sayin'.

@BZTAT I am working on a piece with more detail than I am used to at the moment, and it's making me cross eyed!

@BZTAT is painting on the wild side--wearing clothes that, thus far, do not have paint on them. (That changed real quickly...)

@BZTAT Sometimes I think I really don't know how to paint. I just slap the paint on, and on, and on...until it finally works.

Despite the insecurities, I eventually worked through various dilemmas and finished the piece to my satisfaction. My patron has not yet seen the piece; I hope that she and her pooches enjoy it!

BZTAT with a young fan painting on location
at Lehman's in Kidron, OH

Now, on to the next portrait--a dog named Boomer, who recently went to the Rainbow Bridge. I feel very honored to paint this very special portrait.

Life is an Adventure!
BZTAT

Follow works in progress by BZTAT on Twitter by searching #bztatptg.

Art Adventures Studios
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Art Adventures Studios, located in downtown Canton, OHnear Second April Galerie and the historic Joseph Saxton Gallery of Photography.

Cat Art? Dog Art? Pet Portraits? Murals? Contemporary Folk Art?

Exactly how would YOU describe my artwork?

Cat Art? Dog Art? Pet Portraits? Murals? Contemporary Folk Art? Any of these words would easily apply, I guess. And then, again, none of them could apply, just as easily.

You see, to be a visual artist, it is always a part of your nature to be both seeking and defying verbal description simultaneously. Artists seek to illuminate through a visual language that touches the soul beyond what a simple phrase could say; yet the artist is also perpetually looking for creative ways to speak about his or her vision. Such a paradox.

The paradox deepens when the artist is faced with the modern era of marketing artwork via blogs and websites and social media. Suddenly our verbose oratories have been shunned. We must now find a few "keywords" that will be noticed by search engines, and we must limit our posts to 140 or less characters in some venues!

OK, I confess, I put those words in my title and again in the text copy to satisfy the keyword thing. As far as I am concerned, however, you can call my stuff whatever you want to call it.

I love to paint. I love color and texture and interesting visual effects. I love dogs and cats and I love painting the critters. It's a lot of fun! but if you ask me my passion, well, truly, it is the more expressive work that enriches my soul and feeds my artistic spirit.

My expressive work usually comes in the form of collage. For some reason, I feel more free to dig into my own person with collage, expressing something about personal thoughts, feelings or beliefs by assembling random objects and phrases onto some sort of background. Although I struggle as I am creating them to find some way to bring order to the randomness, it always sorta surprises me when a theme or core structure begins to take shape. I don't make them with the intention of selling them, necessarily, so it tends to surprise me when others even take interest in them.

I open up my studio on First Fridays and other days that I am there during the day so that people can come in and chat or buy things. Usually it is the animal art that people want to buy, but it is the collage that moves them. I like that. My art professors from college would cringe if they knew how much I was enjoying the more slick and commercial aspects of some of my work. Never they fear, though. I am always just a paintbrush away from digging into the depths of my creative soul.

So, please, do follow me on Twitter and MySpace and even Facebook! I also have a CafePress shop and I am exploring Etsy and other commercial venues. Please check out my website as well. This is all part of the world of finding ways to survive as an artist, and, truthfully, there is a lot of creative potential in cyberspace. Plus, it gives YOU an opportunity to make a favorite image into a favorite shirt or mug!

I hope, someday, though, that you get a chance to look at one of my more introspective pieces, too, and that you take the time to share your thoughts. Those are the keywords that mean the most to me.

It is all part of the adventure.


Life is an Adventure!
BZTAT
www.artadventuresstudios.com