I was contacted by the ISPCA (Irish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) a few months ago. They purchased a gift voucher to be used for one of their colleagues retiring. This is not the first time they did, I created a portrait for one of their colleagues previously.
This time, it was for their co-worker Elaine. She was delighted with her voucher and contacted me to create a painting of her two rescue dogs called Gibbs and Ziva. Elaine emailed me with a few photos of both Gibbs and Ziva and we decided to combine a few of these together. They are both chocolate brown coloured cocker spaniel dogs and really beautiful. I worked with acrylics on stretched canvas at 25 x 20 cm. I removed some of the clutter in the background and replaced it with a simple hedge. I kept in the large flower pot with geraniums as they brought in a lovely splash of colour as did their collars.
The photo is of the two dogs looking lovingly through a french doors. Ziva’s body is a little cut off in the photo so I completed the rest of her body based on the other reference images the client emailed me. The photos were not very detailed and the glass created a grey film over the dogs, but I was able to fix this based on the other images. The lack of detail in the photo meant I worked in a looser style which worked well at the small scale.
Elaine was very pleased with the outcome and emailed me when she received her painting back in June this year:
Hi Ivana!
The portrait came safe and sound today I absolutely love it thanks you so much ??
Elaine, Cavan, Ireland
