Animal Portrait Styles, Sizes & Price List

Portraits of animals -- every species and size -- are always a challenge and a joy. They feel like a lengthy conversation in which I learn about the animal's heart, its dignity, even its sense of humor.

My goal with each portrait is not only to capture all that character and life, but to do so in a work that is art in its own right, appealing even to people who don't know the animal. 

I offer paintings and drawings in a variety of sizes and media, and tailor each job to the needs of the client. This is a basic price list with examples.


Traditional Oil Paintings on Canvas

Built up from drawing to finished work in the traditional, complex method of layering and blending. I use oil-primed linen canvas, the highest quality available, with finished edges that make framing optional rather than required.  On request, I may also paint on high-quality artists' hardboard panels.

Peanutbutter, 12 x 9" oil on panel

Wanna draw? Beginner class is open at BTAC!

I get it about being a beginner. I wasn't a child prodigy, so I know how scary it can be to learn, and I love helping people go from "I could never" and "I wish" to "Holy cow, I just drew something!"

One of my beginner students did this fabulous bold thing! Charcoal and white pastel on newsprint. If you think this looks like fun, sign up!

"Do You Wish You Could Draw" is my friendly, relaxed intro-level class at Bloomington Theatre and Art Center. Starts next Tuesday, 3/20. Registration is open right through the day class begins, and it's a beautiful facility, easy to find, and with lots of free parking. If you've been wistfully thinking about playing with art, why not now?

REGISTER HERE

$93 for six two-hour classes.  Tuesdays, 6 to 8 p.m., 3/20 through 4/24. You deserve the playdate.

I Found a 2437!

Out walking (gently; I do still have a fever) this evening, I found aluminum wire; a nickel and a quarter; a small piece of bright red-painted wood; and best of all, a 2437.

It's a small specimen at only 3" long, but the color is exceptional! I look forward to adding its unique presence to a future salvaged-materials piece.

Painted Stories

Corvid, about 15" high, found objects and oil paint

Gradually I have sorted out that what I do in my art is tell stories. Even if it's a landscape, there's a feeling that it's a place where something happened and that if you think about it you might figure out what that was.

My animal portraits tell stories about the nature of the subject -- this cat's sense of humor and that dog's soft dignity, and the bold, quirky horse over here mugging for a treat. I've been telling stories to myself for as long as I can remember, and I don't suppose I'll ever stop.

The little Corvid, here, might be my Patron Saint of Highways -- see the black flag with its broken yellow line, and the treasure (held close where his heart is) that he likely picked up on the road. Branches or wires, he couldn't care less where he lands. But where he comes from, where he's going, what happens to him on the way?

I won't tell you any of that, because the story is told by each person who sees it. There isn't just one, and they are all true.

Small happy things on Monday

Sending out a painting I sold on my Etsy shop over the weekend! So I'm packing that.

And I've been meaning to post this:

I bought this from the kids' impulse aisle at the Har Mar Michael's where I teach acrylic painting classes. For a buck, I didn't expect much, but it was SO CUTE, and my toothbrush needed a place to hang out.

Turns out, it works great! And it makes me happy each time I use it.

I'm sending one to a friend now, because that makes me happy, too.

Blue Moon in Denver

 
Morning on Friday, with the golden Denver sun coming into my room. I snapped a shot to catch that feeling of luxurious peacefulness. It wasn't to last, though, because I had to be out the door and hoofing it over to ...

The Sandlot Brewery at Coors Field! This is where Blue Moon got its start in the mid-90s, at the Sandlot "laboratory" facility. New varieties of Blue Moon are still being developed here all the time.

 
A room at the Brewery, full of artists from all over the country: this was not your typical business-training session. Here we are, playing around, I mean working REALLY HARD, right, learning the ropes of our materials and techniques for this project.

Detail of a painting in progress, above. I didn't get a shot of it finished because the light shifted (we were near windows). (Also I may have been drinking my complimentary pint of Blue Moon by then). You'll get to see it, though, when you come out to one of the Twin Cities events and help paint one yourself!

Seeds in a tiny handmade book

Untitled, mixed media on Rives BFK Tan paper, about 5" x 3.5".

This is the first page of a hand-bound book my friend Tom Winterstein made for me. I took the book on my flight to Denver and back last week, began the drawing at 30,000 feet, and finished it in the studio Saturday afternoon.

I've been everywhere, man. Except online, it seems; but I'll correct that this week. I have photos from the training day at the Sandlot Brewery, and of a commissioned painting of geraniums, in progress.

Oh, and I have a class coming up at Michael's Arts and Crafts on Thursday. I'm at the Har Mar Michael's; you can find a link at the top of this blog where the schedule of classes (mine and everyone else's -- we have a lot of them) is available to download. :-)

Eagle

10.5 x 8.5" watercolor, pastel pencils, and pastel on Rives BFK Tan paper

He's a commission, to mark a military promotion, and is a surprise gift for the recipient. I'm very pleased with this one and excited about the next one on the easel, which is a red-tailed hawk I'm doing just because I want to.

I hope to help support the Raptor Center  (where I took the source photos for this drawing and the next one) by donating a drawing or two to their next fundraising auction; I'll post about that when I have more information.

Eagle and Hawk (photo post)

I'm doing a commissioned drawing of a bald eagle. Needed my own photos for reference, so I paid a visit to the Raptor Center at the U of M.  Many thanks to the staff there for welcoming me and showing me around.

 

Naturally I'll be turning this youngster's head white, in my drawing; I just needed his magnificent pose. The drawing is in progress and I'll post it in a couple hours when it's complete.

UPDATE: Okay, more than a couple hours. More like five hours, start to finish; that's a lot of feathery goodness, right there.

Below, a gorgeous red-tailed hawk in my favorite photo from yesterday's visit. I'll be drawing her simply because ... how could I not?

Cat House

Cat House, about 9" high. Salvaged objects, oil paint, wax medium

One of the first salvage things I ever made was titled How to Let Go by Climbing, and I consider this one a direct descendent of that. It had about a dozen working titles, none of which I can remember now; I eventually settled on Cat House because that's what everyone was going to call it anyway.

Yes, that's a piece of a broken stereo, forming the doorway of the Cat House. Found in a vacant parking lot near the old Schmidt/Landmark brewery over the summer. The square wood piece is from the same site, while the triangular "roofline" is one of four such shapes I found near White Bear Avenue, beside a vacant hotel building. The bits of broken jewelry I used, I've had for years.

The bright little cardinal on the hanging ladder was part of a broken Christmas decoration, found behind a shopping plaza in Crystal. I've had it for over two years, and the cat charm for over ten.

Sometimes I hang onto things too long. By which I mean, when I have great stuff to work with -- the cat charm, the fine chains and pearl beads, the salvaged perching bird a friend sent me ages ago -- I don't want to "waste" them. I balk. What if I come up with some better use, later on? Surely I should wait until then!

But waiting means nothing gets made and I still have all the boxes and jars of pieces, instead of something beautiful. I'm learning to let it go.