springer spaniel pet portrait

As promised, the update on Brodie's pet portrait! It's been a problem posting this image as dear Willow decided to eat the ethernet cable, the modem router plug, the telephone cable, the spare internet cable, the vacuum cleaner plug and a wind-up dancing chicken! I have no idea what came over her but she was not in good books, the next day things were back to normal with no damage and she was well behaved as though nothing had happened, however I have not been able get onto the internet or check my emails until today!

Anyway back to business, I mounted and framed Bodie and Snoop for collection today. We met Snoop's Dad at Ledbury auction and he was very pleased with the outcome. I also managed to bid for and buy a huge pub sandwich board which will be renovated and put by my gate advertising my wares, my only ever purchase from the auction so I was very pleased!

And yesterday my garden was over-run with dogs posing for future portraits, as soon as I plough through the many photos I took I'll update the future portraits images.

Plus I also visited this lovely horse and his stable mates to get some shots for portraits (he has actually recovered from a broken leg and was in a sling for about six weeks) and again as soon as I can I'll update the future portraits list.

I've also received a bumper load of unsuitable images for my pet portrait competition, if you are thinking of entering, as it's completely free, please do just take a few minutes to read the entry details, this will prevent your images being rejected, please bear in mind images taken on camera phones are generally too poor to use, I really cannot work from something the size of a postage stamp!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower (see bottom of page). If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. It costs nothing to enter, all you require is internet access.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

springer spaniel pet portrait

Not too much of an update on Brodie's pet portrait. This past week has been quite tiring at the day job so I've not done much at all. At least Brodie has 4 legs now and can stand up! I'm still trying to figure out the background but I am working on it I promise!

And talking of work, this was the lovely place we ended up at on Thursday, it's a fishing pond near a place called Steam Mills. This is a man made pond created by the Forestry Commission, isn't it lovely!

I even managed to spot some of the local wildlife (it turned out to be a foreigner who has moved in permanently into this country...a mandarin duck and her little ducklings)

And here they are hard at work, it was quite a busy day with the boys felling some difficult tress and then me trying to help drag them up a bank, I did get ran over by a tree at one point!

As you can see, nothing is ever easy, there were some harder trees to fell, this involved them having to be roped and dragged back in by hand, I found myself on the end of the rope many times and boy did my arms ache afterwards!

And poor Willow was not impressed at all, as she isn't worried by the noise of the chainsaws I did tie her up out of harms way as the trees were felled because I thought she may have come to investigate, even then she narrowly escaped a tree falling on her as it was taller than expected and fell short by about a foot, she just lay down but never stirred!

Anyway, it turns out she was smarter than I gave her credit for and simply moved even further away when let off her lead to sit and watch us from a more comfortable distance. You can just see her ears poking up.

And today was another steam rally, I've added a few pics to my flickr account and you can see more here

And I have got a little video of mummy muscovy duck with some of her new duckling babies (the rest are underneath her keeping warm.)

And yet more news on Pickle:

Since my last post Pickle took another turn for the worse and was returned to the vet, he has had xrays and ultrasound and was found to have at least 4 stones, the largest of which was the size of my fingernail, luckily the vet was able to remove this during surgery, unfortunately he could not locate two smaller ones but they could well be on their way out so that's good news but he still has one in his kidneys so only time will tell if this one can be broken down. Pickle now has to eat lots of apple and beetroot for the acid in them to break down the remaining stones and prevent anymore. He is currently holed up in a large carry cage in my living room so I can keep an eye on him. Poor Pickle, but at long last things may actually be cured so I've got my fingers crossed. I would show you a picture of the stone that was removed but it is a bit gory! Oh and you'll be glad to know he's already had a bit of carrot.

Plus one last thing to report, I'm thinking I may hold another pet portrait competition after the success of the one held last year so I'm starting to think about details on that, any suggestions or ideas from you all on that would be appreciated.

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower (see bottom of page). If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. It costs nothing to enter, all you require is internet access.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

springer spaniel pet portrait

Brodie's pet portrait now has legs!!! I've carried on with the body of Brodie before starting work on the foreground and background. Just a few pics from the garden, some stripey clematis, I love these flowers, apparantly you can find a clematis which flowers for nearly every month of the year.

And Willow has now found a new game, she is a bit of an expert at frizzby. It was a bit short lived because as soon as she found her football we had to change sports!
And here are my ducklings with Mummy, these were about a day old at this point. Since then we have found a large dish for them to bath in so I'll try to get some action shots of them paddling about.

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower (see bottom of page). If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. It costs nothing to enter, all you require is internet access.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

springer spaniel pet portrait

I've got quite a bit done on this latest pet portrait of Brodie the springer spaniel, so much so that I was ready to finish at the stage shown above but then had second wind and had another go after putting all my rabbits and guinea pigs out to play in the garden!

So this is were I got to when I heard shouts of 'come here and look at this!' and sat all pretty with 10 newly hatched ducklings was our muscovy mum duck. As of last night the news was that just two eggs had pipped but then mummy was maybe a little over run with them sometime this morning as every last egg hatched! Aren't they lovely!

And of course in amongst all the excitement, Willow patiently waited for a game of football...

and doesn't he look better, this is Pickle out and about, those buttercups didn't last long, I think he took a fancy to them and demolished them a bit rapidly!

Gypsy is Ronnie's baby, she will not leave his side, and he is not allowed any peace when she is about. I think she's a pocket rocket and is luckily small enough to fit on the bench or on a lap without too much of a squeeze. She was trying desperately to get Ronnie to sort out her food, she thinks of food non stop and is quite obsessed with it!And another icon of summer, after bluebells, the foxgloves appear, there is a hoard of them behind the tactor shed and they seem to be everywhere this summer so the weather must be just right for them.

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower (see bottom of page). If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. It costs nothing to enter, all you require is internet access.

If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website

Thanks for visiting!

springer spaniel pet portrait

So I've started my next pet portrait, another liver and white springer spaniel, this one is called Brodie, very similar in name and colouring to Bodie, my previous pet portrait. Again this is on drafting film (I don't think I'll ever get away from it now as I like it so much) but I've already decided this will probably be over a cream background after all the suggestions and comments for Bodie's background, so I've added it at the beginning for you all to see how things really look from start to end, unless I change my mind though!!! And an update on dear Pickle, he has put on some weight now and is concentrating his efforts on eating as much hay as possible. As I am still giving him medicine twice daily I can feel him getting plumper all the time but he does still squeak a little whereas he used to shreak at me non-stop so there is still some way to go yet but at long last, after all the ups and downs over the past month I think we are finally on the last uphill bit!

Thankfully it is Friday and I have spent a week on banks at work. The bank we are working up and down today is very steep and also covered with wild garlic plus it's damp, hence I have fallen, slipped, skidded and basically slalomed my way down it many times and the garlic has made everything smell awful, even Willow smells of garlic, yuk! I like garlic but an overdose of a week's worth is not the most aromatic smell I know of. Poo, I stink!!!

Anyway, as it is reasonably rainfree this afternoon, I am about to let all of my furry friends, including Pickle, have a run around on the grass for a few hours! Hope the weather is good wherever you all are too!

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower (see bottom of page). If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. It costs nothing to enter, all you require is internet access.
If you are interested in commissioning me please visit my pet portrait artist website or my wildlife artist website
Thanks for visiting!