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Portraits of Animals logo

 Click the icon at right to meet
My Cats

 My Cats

 Click the icon at right to see my Commissioned Cats

 Commissioned Cats

 Click the icon at right to see my Commissioned Dogs

 Commissioned Dogs

 Click the icon at right to see a Demonstration of Animal Portraiture

 

 Click the icon at right to see my Wildlife Artwork

 Wild Things

 Click the icon at right to see My People

 Some People

 Click the icon at right to see my Landscapes

 Land and Waterscapes

 Click the icon at right to see my Waterscapes

 

 Click the icon at right to see Still Lifes and Flower Studies

 Still Lifes and Flowers

 Click the icon at right to see some Other Works such as house renderings and urban scenes...

 Everything Else

 Click the icon at right to see a variety of Cards and Prints and other merchandise available

 Notes and Prints
To order notecards or small prints, click the icon at right to go to my Notecard Order Form  
To order original artwork, click the icon at right to go to my Artwork Order Form  

Commissioned Dogs headline

 

 

AshtonANIMAL PORTRAITURE

I always work from photographs to create a portrait of an animal, usually compiling two or more (or a whole photo album of) photographs to accurately study and render the physical characteristics of the image which the commissioner desires. But a portrait, human or animal, is not just a picture of the subject's physical characteristics. An accurate portrait captures as much of the subject's emotional and spiritual traits as is possible, and this is true for animals as well as people. In animal portraiture, I endeavor to get to know the animal either by a face-to-face meeting or by interviewing the animal's human companion(s), then instilling as much of what I have gathered into the work as I can. To date I have completed 65 portraits of cats and dogs whether individually, together, even with their human companions.

For portrait pricing and terms and a demonstration of how a portrait is created, please see my Portrait Demonstration page.


Please be patient while I update three years' worth of portraits!
You'll see yours here soon!


“Maggie”, 12" x 16" (app.), pastel, 2005
A group of people in a workplace commissioned this for their boss, the company's owner. It was very last-minute, but they provided two excellent photographs and a nice personality profile, so Maggie was done in time. It's a little frightening tobein this position--after all, what if it didn't turn out right or the recipient didn't like it?! But things turned out fine.


 

 “Rambo”, 18" x 24" (app.), pastel, 2005
Yes, Rambo really is "yellow", even though he's obviously a shepherd; I had a big moment of doubt when I was nearly done thinking that the lighting was off in the photo and he was really a white shepherd. Unfortunately the colors just don't display right because the background is a much cooler green that this shows, to match the client's walls. This was another holiday gift.


“Clifford”, 12" x 12", pastel, 2005
Clifford's portrait was a gift from two friends to a third. As you can see, he's not any particular breed, but he is a happy, friendly ex-shelter dog who is also well-loved. The person who commissioned me had to sneak a few photos away and scan them to send to me.

This is an example of a small, simple portrait with just the subject in a typical position and a background color of choice. This position captures his most familiar features—his face, of course, also his chest and paws, the white tip on his tail, and the one ear that flops just a bit. Here's a closeup of his face.


Chelsea

MEDIUM: Pastel; SIZE: 21" x 25"; Commissioned, 2000 Chelsea was a challenge because she was an "emergency protrait" as I call them—the recipient's birthday was about a month away and it was to be a surprise. He had mentioned that he'd like me to do a portrait of his dog, so the whole family went together to commission me and conspired to keep the deal a secret. I had some challenges creating Chelsea's portrait from the photos I was given, but the finished work was just as exciting for the recipient as for his children who had grown up with Chelsea. I have used Chelsea as a demonstration piece for my portraiture—click here to read the rest of the story and see the details of how a portrait is produced!

 

Cassie and Tyler

Cassie and TylerMEDIUM: Pastel; SIZE: 23" x 16"; Commissioned, 1995 These are my veterinarian's two Lab mixes, and this portrait was a composite from all sorts of places. She gave me pictures and I took some, then I took some more because Tyler is so black that I kept losing his details. We decided to place them near water since they are Search and Rescue dogs and love to swim, even if it's only a kiddie pool in the back yard; the picture is of a lake near me. Cassie is the lead dog and Tyler is just a big playful puppy, but the two are very close and have to be playing with or at least touching each other all the time.

Pork Chop

Pork ChopMEDIUM: Pastel; SIZE: 9" x 12"; Commissioned, 1997 I was decidedly seeing spots after this one! Pork Chop is a wiggly, talkative German Short-Haired Pointer, and aside from a few extra pictures for facial details, this portrait was created from one photograph (although I deleted the camping gear from the background). I told Pork Chop's companion that this portrait was accurate for detail but not for personality--she is sitting still and not eating any foreign objects.

 

 

Sky

SkyMEDIUM: Pastel; SIZE: 16" x 22"; Commissioned, 1997 Sky is a Blue Merle* Australian Sheep Dog and this portrait was a Christmas gift for my client's father. Sky is a happy, social dog, accepting everyone into his circle of favorite people. His personality makes Sky the center of his companion's universe; as my client put it,"If my mother, my sister, Sky and I were on a bridge when it collapsed, my father would save Sky first." My client chose a bust-style portrait so that Sky's face and mane could be just about life-sized and you could see all the details of his expression. *I have seen various spellings for this term, all in reputable places. I chose the one I saw most often, but if anyone can give me an "official" decision, please do.

 

Holly

HollyMEDIUM: Pastel; SIZE: 15" x 21"; Commissioned, 1994 A Christmas gift for my client's husband, we had very little time when he wasn't home and one pose in mind for Holly when I arrived at her house to see her pictures. I took a few more, but just when I was packing up to leave Holly jumped up on the wicker chest, flopped down and looked at us as if to say, "How about this?" We scurried for cameras and got several pictures of Holly on the chest and of the chest by itself, although I secretly wished Holly had chosen something a little less complicated on which to pose.

 

 

Molly

MollyMEDIUM: Pastel; SIZE: 22" x 16"; Commissioned, 1996 She's ready to play and daring you to try to take her chew toy! I'm so glad my clients chose this position for Molly; she was such an active and intelligent dog, and she spoke, intentionally, just as much with her facial expression and posture as with her voice. Animals with extremely smooth, shiny fur are difficult to photograph, especially if they are dark-colored; the result is usually a dark shape with very bright oddly-shaped highlights. I had to take an extra set of photographs for more detail and tone down most of Molly's highlights and shadow areas so that she wouldn't look like a spotted dog.

Willie

WillieMEDIUM: Pastel; SIZE: 6" x 9"; Commissioned, 1993 Clients don't often choose a bust-style portrait for their pets, as is common for people, but I remember in this case that my client couldn't get the good pictures--his wife had them, and this was a Christmas gift for her. At the time Willie was about 14 years old, so I worked from some rather old black and white pictures plus a few color. He was pleased with this view and so was his wife; they both said it was really Willie's face that they wanted to remember.

 

Ashton

AshtonMEDIUM: Pastel; SIZE: 9" x 11"; Commissioned, 1999 Ashton was a surprise gift from my client to a friend, so I did not get to meet Ashton, but she had gathered pretty good pictures. However, with animals who have this silvery fur tone, plus a patina like that around Ashton's mouth, it's easy to get an innacurate reading on the actual fur color, especially when a flash is used—the fur can actually look white when it's gray, blueish when it is actually a warm white. The only way to compensate for this is to see the animal "in the fur."

 

 

 

 

 

Carol and Smudge

MEDIUM: Pencil; SIZE: 10" x 13"; commissioned, 2006 The human is a friend of mine, and I assisted her in finding Smudge. Unfortunately, Smudge was with her for less than a year, so her sister and brother-in-law commissioned me to do a portrait of her, and I chose to do the two of them together. Also, visit my "Manuscripts" page to read about Carol and Smudge.

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All artwork on this page is copyright Bernadette E. Kazmarski and cannot be used or reproduced in any way without my written permission.
This page is owned and maintained by the artist.

I update the artwork on this page as I create new works. While trying to view this page in as many browsers and on as many monitors as possible, plus trying to keep my artwork clear but not so big that it takes all day to download, I have found that each picture changes with each variation. I hope that what you see here is clear and inviting.

Send your comments, stories or requests for information to: Bernadette Kazmarski or bernadette@bernadette-k.com if my link isn't working.
The URL of this page is www.bernadette-k.com