For Anne

A year ago, I heard that a woman whose life was devoted to the rescue of square headed dogs had died in a death that could have been prevented. She was all gruff exterior hiding a very tender and loving heart.

She frightened me a bit because I could never tell how she'd react to me. But, I respected her and her dedication and her love for four legged beings.

I fostered Penny through her organization. And she's the one who made me realize that I'd never find a permanent family quite good enough for my Penny because Penny was supposed to be with me.

When she died, I had the time to help out getting food for the funeral. And at the funeral, I took time to be with her dog. I really knew no one and so it was a pleasure to hang out with this lovely gentle being.

So, when I was looking for pictures to base a painting that I was going to do for Bullseye Rescue Pitbulls on Parade, and ran across a picture of him, I decided I was going to paint him. I wanted a looser style than some of my other paintings and the goofy expression seemed like a great subject.

Gus

Whenever I hear of a cat named Gus, the little Broadway musical chanteuse hidden inside of me starts singing,

"Gus is the Cat at the Theatre Door.

His name, as I ought to have told you before,

Is really Asparagus. That's such a fuss

To pronounce, that we usually call him just Gus."

And perhaps that's why this cat got the green background. Or maybe it was to match his eyes.

This cat definitely was not:

"His coat's very shabby, he's thin as a rake,

And he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake. "

This cat was beloved. And is still beloved even now that he's gone.

I delivered this to the customer on Sunday. You could tell by the look in her eyes that he is very much missed.

It is so rewarding to see the recognition in the customer's eyes when she first sees the portrait.

In gratitude to all the animal lovers out there!

It's not a pony.

Meet Drum. A horse, not a little pony. What fun it has been to paint goats and horses. Of course, I love painting dogs and cats, too, but with animals I don't paint often I have new things to learn.

One of the challenges for this portrait was doing the braids.

I hope the customer likes it. I sent her a scan, but hadn't heard from her before her transport showed up.

On another note, I've been covering the scan bed with a gray towel. I think that is affecting the colors that are being scanned.

Angel, not just for halloween

I've finished four commissions this week, two that I am very happy with. This is one of the ones I really like.

This is Angel, who died at the age of 22. My customer's brother rescued her from a San Francisco shelter at age 14. I love it when older cats are adopted. According to my customer, Angel "had it so good she stuck around for a long time. "

She was called "Our little Lady"and was sweet, loving and devoted. She was also a huge talker.

This is a gift for her brother.

Sweetie Goat

When I posted Keegan, I talked a lot about how alien a goat can look with their hooves and square pupil eyes. On the other hand, they can look incredibly docile and sweet, like this little girl.

And her fur was fun to play with. You could see from the picture that there was a lot to it. I tried to capture that same feeling in the painting.

It was fun!

Plato revealed

He's missing whiskers -- I was wondering whether I should change his background to yellow or orange or purple instead of blue....... but otherthan that, he's done!

Life of Keegan

I've been working for a long while now, on and off, on six commissions for a woman VERY active in rescue.

I love to paint personalities of cats and dogs, so I am happy to paint the two cats and two dogs. But, she's given me the opportunity to paint goats and horses too!

It's been so fun, especially to paint the goats, because their eyes, with a square pupil, make them look alien, so it's been challenging to make them friendly and cute, too.

I was even more inspired to paint them after seeing my friends Michael and Lorrainna's goats. Their girls are full of personality and very eager to get attention -- especially if you have a treat in your hands. In addition to their weird eyes, their cloven feet are weird too. Not quite a hoof, not quite fingers, they add to the alienness of the species.