Sienna - Search & Rescue Dog Donation #21

Sienna
Golden Retriever
DAWGS

From her partner: My Golden Retriever Sienna was a search and rescue dog with Disaster and Wilderness Ground Searchers in CT. One of her best buddies in search was Jet, the black lab you painted.

During her career, she worked with a passion and joy even when cutting her foot open and tearing two ACLs. She started her career as an 8 week old puppy. On September 13 2008, I awoke to find her sleeping peacefully on her bed. She had died in her sleep. Sienna was 10 years old. My vet determined she died of hemiosarcoma which often has no symptoms until the dog dies.

Thank you Sienna for all you did :)

I've been busy working on some commissions, and I swear I'm going to get back into painting things other than dogs eventually :)

Live Creatively!

Liz

Uintah & Wahsatch

Uintah & Wahsatch
Oil on Canvas
20" x 20"

Finally getting around to posting the final photo of the two golden retrievers - They have great names - they are named after the mountains in the area of Utah where they live. They are both search & rescue dogs. As usual it's not a very good photo, but I haven't posted in so long, I figured I'd put it up anyway.

My son and I participated in the Funky Finds Spring Fling art & craft show. My son's artwork can be seen here The show was a lot of fun. It was a 'dog-friendly' venue, so along with my husband, came Mackenzie the Wacky Pup.

Here is Mackenzie sitting under her portrait

My son brought Holley, his 100 lb German Shepherd / Rottie mix

and my sister came with Zora, her 130 lb German Shepherd / Yeti mix.

All the dogs were wearing their "Wacky Pup" bandana - Directions for making a bandanna for your dog, cat or even yourself are on WackyPup.com All those people and dogs in one 10' x 10' display area LOL . . . most people were not too intimidated to come in and look at the art. The majority of the shoppers had their own dogs, too. All in all, a lot of fun.

I took a couple photos of some dogs that I think will make good paintings, but I got very interested in babies in strollers. For one thing, the strollers are amazing looking now - some look like you could take them off-road - and if you put an engine on them, the whole family could ride LOL. But mostly I was interested because the babies are always either trying to get out, or sitting in funny positions.

Bluebird No. 5
The Bluebird of Fair to Middlin'
9" x 9"
Oil on Reclaimed Wood Panel
$150
send me an email if you're interested

I have been busy working on commissions, including a house portrait and another golden retriever portrait. Hopefully I will have some paintings to show after they have been presented to their surprise recipients.

Live Creatively!

Liz

Holley in Her Natural Habitat

This is Holley - she is a couch potato - so I painted her portrait in her normal position :)

HOLLEY
Rottweiler Mix
8" x 16"
Sold

I'm not very talkative tonight, so I'll make this brief. I am getting ready for my first show on Saturday, hope some of you can make it out there. I think I am listed in the program as either A Portrait For You or Wacky Pup - so look for me! I'll have some of my paintings with me and you will be able to see how much better they look in real life.

As a self-taught artist, I appreciate the following quote, even though I have no idea who the guy is that said it :)

“It is better to create than to be learned, creating is the true essence of life” Barthold Georg Niebuhr

Live Creatively!
Liz

You know, I'm eventually going to need glasses!

You know, I'm eventually going to need glasses!

Flat Coated Retriever / Cocker Spaniel Cross
11" x 14"
Oil on Panel

This is a very cartoonish depiction of my old dog Ruby doing her least favorite trick :) I went to the Fort Worth Arts Festival this past weekend, and there was a couple artists doing cartoony portraits, and I thought "neat! I should try this" I have to say, it's much easier than trying to get it to look like the real dog LOL. I'm not sure how many of these I'll be doing, but they are fun. I'll get looser with them after I've done a few.

I didn't have an actual photo of her doing this trick, so I just made it up, with a photo of her for reference. Here's a close-up of her poor crossed eyes.

Live creatively!

Liz

Indigo

Indigo
16"x20"
Oil on Canvas
sold

This is Indigo, a Siamese mix. His name was inspired by his beautiful blue eyes. This commissioned portrait was influenced by the painting of the hairless cat I did last year. You may remember that one, it had a retro turquoise and brown background. This has a similar color scheme with a different pattern.

This is the other cat portrait with a retro background:


well, another long day tomorrow, so I'm off!

Live Creatively!

Liz

Home Portrait

Home Portrait
12" x 16"
Oil on Panel
Private Collection, NFS

Aha! Something other than a dog!

This is a privately commissioned home portrait. Interestingly, the client asked for me to paint it on a panel, as she wanted to mat and frame it like a watercolor. She got more bang for her buck this way, because a 12"x 16" painting will mat to 16" x 20 or even larger. She liked it so much that she has commissioned a second painting of a different house.

Just thought you'd like to see something besides dogs for a change. I've been busy making a 3' wide WackyPup face out of styrofoam for my art show at the end of the month. Soon, back to the easel!

Live Creatively!
Liz

A New Painting . . . . and a SCAM

"HEY! YOU WITH THE OPPOSABLE THUMB!!"
Mackenzie

Labradoodle
24" x 20"
Acrylic on Canvas

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted. I do have some paintings, but no photos! I am so far behind. Allow me to introduce Mackenzie. She is my dog. I've wanted to paint her for quite a while, but I can't ever get the photo that I really want. I still didn't, but I like this one. When she's trying to get you to throw the ball for her, she looks up at you with the whites showing in her eyes - I love the look, but when I take the camera out she stops doing it! I have a lot more sympathy with those of you who tell me they can't get a good photo of their dog. Now I understand why I work from so many bad photos LOL

I waited until today to send this out so that I could get a good daylight photo. The painting is so bright that it's hard to get an accurate photo, but it's pretty close. I think the close-up below is more accurate.

You'll notice that the copyright is a bit different on this one - I have started a new website - what? 5 websites is not enough? plus 2 blogs? Ok have I mentioned that I have ADD . . . oh look a chicken . . . anyway, if I were a firearm, I'd be a shotgun. Anyway, this new website - WackyPup.com has more crafty type things, and will also have my wackier paintings. Mack will be the first to be showcased. It will also include things from others, like my sister who builds things from wood. If you have something that you think could be marketed through WackyPup.com give me a hollar and we'll see if we can work something out.


I'm using a different type of paint - Chroma Interactives. I'm excited to announce that I was approached to become a working artist for Chroma. This is the first painting I've done with the new paints. They are an acrylic paint that has a much longer open time than traditional acrylics. I don't usually paint in acrylics for exactly that reason - they dry so fast that I don't have time to do any blending or manipulation of the paint. Even oils dry too fast for me most of the time (but then I use a lot of liquin LOL) I LOVE these Chroma Interactive paints! The colors are fantastic and they handle well. I'm going to have to use them more to get accustomed to the properties, but so far it looks like they will be a wonderful addition to my studio. I'll be writing more about them as I find out more techniques to use them.

Now, the scam I mentioned. A while back, I painted a portrait of a golden retriver named Theodore, owned by Scott Shields. I just found out tonight that Scott is a fraud. He also owned another dog, Bear, who was purported to be the most successful rescue dog ever, won medals, and gathered a lot of publicity and money for Scott and his sister. The stories that Scott told were LIES and the dogs weren't even trained as rescue dogs.


I was one of the many who were taken in by Scott's stories. However, I am leaving Theo's painting up, albeit as a FAUX Search & Rescue dog, because it is not his fault that his owner is a fraud. He is still a beautiful golden retreiver, and I'm sure that if he had the opportunity to become a REAL search & rescue dog, he would be very eager to do it! If he understood what had been going on, he would be ashamed of his owner, but since dogs give unconditional love, he doesn't have a clue. So, this is a tribute to all the dogs we own that love us no matter if we deserve it or not.

Thank you as usual for your patience, I should be painting a bit more often over the next two weeks, because I'm supposed to be in an art show at the end of the month and I have nothing to bring LOL!!

If' you're going to be in the Fort Worth area on April 25 come by the Will Rogers Memorial Center and visit me at the Funky Finds Spring Fling - It's FREE and pet-friendly and looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. I'll be painting and doing dog caricatures . . .

Live Creatively!!

Liz