This is the third time my client Colette contacted me to create a portrait of her dogs. She adopts abandoned dogs and they are growing in numbers 🙂 When she first contacted me a few years ago, I made a drawing of three of her dogs, beagle Holly, collie Buster and terrier cross Casey, who was still a puppie then. The second portrait I made for her was a painting of the previous three together with a new addition, a lovely black and white Socks. The last painting which I just completed a few weeks ago, includes two more dogs, terrier cross Winnie and pointer Captain.
The painting was quite large to accommodate all dogs, at 40 x 80 cm. I worked with acrylics on stretched canvas. I placed the dogs around the canvas rather than in a row as I did in previous paintings. The background was simply shaded with some out of focus greenery. I placed the two small dogs to the front and the larger ones at back. I only had individual photos of each, so it was challenging to guess the sizes in relation to each other, but the client was very helpful here. Socks and Captain at the back are shaded off at the bottom. I am including some close-up photos of the canvas. Because the canvas was so large, my scanner was just too small. I took some photographs instead.
The client was delighted with the painting and wrote me a lovely email when she saw the photos:
Ivana, I’m over the moon, it’s super. They are so real I’m expecting them to bark… I already know where this is going.
and again when she received the painting in post:
Well it’s just wonderful I’m so pleased. Thank you so very much for your work and continued good luck to you.
Colette, Kilkenny
Painting detail 
Painting detail 
Reference photos 
Work in progress