The Beginnings

I am often asked why I paint the colors I do and what got me started painting like that in the first place.  I have a difficult time explaining it in the 60 seconds most people are willing to listen.  I began thinking about it quite a lot this month.   What really started the thinking was a visit with our friends and my first commission clients, Keith and Leslie.  We know this couple from my husband's job AND because they stole our wedding date from us.  (ha! so now it's public knowledge, Doogie!)  Seriously, we both decided to get married at the same time and really did pick the same date, but since my husband and Keith both worked in the same department, that wasn't going to work at all.  They legitimately beat us to the punch.  


So, back to the painting.  While chatting with my husband and some other friends at the Gosport Arts Festival last month, Leslie mentioned that they were my first clients.  Yes, indeed.  They were. They saw a painting I had done of my pup Gracie and Leslie wouldn't give up until I agreed to paint their "kids."    

This painting is about 24 x 36 inches and I began it quite realistically.  I had been painting in pastels and some acrylic, doing beach scenes, florals and people.  My work was no different than dozens of other artists doing the same thing.  And I was bored.  So, I started painting wild colors, a lot, LOT of red, all over Gracie.  Then adding sweeping gestures of bold blues and oranges and yellows.  Colors I typically did not use and nothing found in any dog I knew.  I left the studio that night and didn't look back.  
The next morning I went into the studio and poor Gracie!  She looked like she had been born in flames.  wow.  Helldog.  But, I loved the striking colors and now I had the challenge of bringing it back.  This was done in 1996.  It's not a great painting, but I learned a great deal by doing this one.  It's the painting that helped me turn a corner and was the beginning of my maturing process (if you can call it that) as an artist.  Following that painting, I began to take graduate level classes and began to explore color.  Not intentionally, but that is where I was headed.  


So, Leslie became enamored with this painting and asked quite a few times if I'd paint their dogs.  After some thought, I decided Sure.  Why not?  Soon after, they delivered photo albums.  Complete albums, just of the dogs.  It was awesome.  I delved into all the photos and pulled out the ones I thought would work.  The only request was that the two had to be together.  It was also my first venture doing a composite painting - taking elements from several photos and combining them into one.  

 "Cujo and Church," a 24 x 30 inch painting, was done in 1999.   My career as a pet painter was born. 


The colors I used became bolder as I learned more about pigment.  It wasn't until 2004 or 2005 that I learned other artists were painting in wild, unheard of colors as well.  I had never heard of Ron Burns or Jody Wright.  I wasn't mimicking anyone:  I loved animals, I loved color and the marriage of the two made sense to me.   I find it interesting that there are other artists out there who must have been catching the same energy waves as I was at that time, because when I read their bios or backgrounds, their stories are nearly identical to mine.  Now numerous artists are painting in similar ways to those of us who began this over a decade ago.  But one thing is certain...we all have our own style and if one looks closely enough, past the colors, none of us is the same as the other.  


So, Why do I paint with the colors I do?  Short answer: Because that's where I am.