Featuring Your Favorite Pet

From fine art to amateur hour, beloved pooches have become the subject of increasing numbers of art. There are two women, mother and daughter from Memphis, Tennessee, who paid a renowned pastel artist to draw four of their dogs. A grand family portrait, reminding everyone of times past, is how the duo perceives the canvas, especially with the death of two of their loved dogs. They would consider it a sin not to be able to differentiate one dog from another.

Last year, they held a couple session for Kelly Rae, a cockapoo puppy, and Miss Manners, a Lhasa apso. Outgoing is Kelly, while snobbish is Miss Manners. That is the entirety of the phenomenon. Doggie art has even found its way into the hands of serious art collectors. Articles on paintings like this can be viewed at custom pet portrait.

The owner of a Manhattan gallery who specializes in 19th century animal art says that good quality pet portraits that sold for $2,500 ten years ago sell for $10,000 today. One of his paintings, of Neptune, a Newfoundland, was auctioned recently for $577,000, his personal record. At the same time, a Frenchman who lives on Long Island and a leading animalier of this century, commands as much as $250,000 for a single beastly profile for his paintings.

The gallery owner credits the pet parade to a revived interest in Victorian decorating. Promotional value and pleasure were brought into English homes by animal paintings, of pets and stable animals. She commented on how animal paintings have a tendency to increase the warmth of a room.

She does not believe in looking down on those who commission pet portraits locally, though her primary experience is with international standard paintings. She takes the nation’s demand for pet paintings seriously. In order to be satisfied with the likeness of one’s breed, an owner should just commission his own painting, because there are breeds whose descendants’ looks are far from those of their ancestors. Special commissions usually involve working from photos and alterations suggested by the patron. Landscapes are the specialty of one water colorist from Germantown, Tennessee, who had the unfortunate experience of having to redo a painting of two shaggy dogs after her dissatisfied client asked her to adjust for the gleam in his dogs’ eyes. Then she had another client who was happy with the five pose painting she did of his deceased dachshund. Obtain further advice on paintings by checking out oil painting portraits.

Thirteen successful years of painting houses and pets have passed for another water colorist from Eads, Tennessee. Though she is usually commissioned for dogs and horses, she has had experience with cats, fish, and a frog. She can tell from the reaction of the client when he sees the painting if he is pleased, especially when the portrait is of a deceased pet. Tears naturally spring to the eyes of some clients.