Portraits of Pets – 2019

I’d like to wish all my clients past and present and everyone that has found my website and thinking of having a portrait of their pet, a very Happy New Year. I know it’s now February!.   It’s taken me a while to write this post as I have been so busy in January with my portraits of pets, replying to new enquiries and general admin that I’ve neglected to computer side of things!

What a wonderful year 2019 has been.  I’ve had so many wonderful clients and it’s been an absolute pleasure painting each and every one of their pets. Several clients told me stories about their beloved pets and how they came to be in their forever home and I thought it would be a lovely idea to share some of their stories in a blog along with photos and client comments. It’s so nice to get to hear about each of the pets that I paint.  I don’t just see a photo when I do my portraits of pets, I get to feel the character of each of them.  What they get up to is especially funny.  Each and every one of them are so different.  They are unique!

You will see some work in progress photos of some of my portraits of pets that were painted in 2019.  Along with clients comments and stories about each one. Some  of the paintings were for Christmas, so I’ve had to keep them under wraps until now! These are just a few of my portraits of pets that I painted in 2019 and I shall be posting some more in 2020 as I paint them.

Portraits of Pets – Horse portraits

The first portraits of pets to show you is of three beautiful Ponies.  My client had visited a friends house and spotted a portrait of her two cats that I had painted up on her wall.  The friend mentioned that I also painted horses too!.  My clients mother had a birthday in January this year (hence I haven’t shown you until now!).  She mentioned that one of the ponies was sadly no longer with us and that her mum would love to have a portrait of all three of the ponies together.  They didn’t have any decent photos of three of them together, but had some lovely individual ones.  I prefer to work from seperate photos anyway, so this wasn’t a problem.  I created a rough mock up putting them together to show the client the composition.  You will see below a work in progress of the portrait as well as the portrait finished.

Portraits of pets – framed horses in pastels

My client chose to frame  her portrait herself.  The frame really sets off the horses beautifully.  Below you can read the stories of these beautiful ponies, along with client feedback.

Portraits of pets – the horses story

Here is what my client told me about these beautiful Ponies.

I’ve wanted to get my mum a portrait of our 3 ponies for a few years as we sadly lost Caramel in 2015 and hadn’t managed to get the perfect photo of them together. I saw a portrait you’d created of my friends cats and knew I’d found someone who would capture the ponies perfectly!
Caramel (centre) was the ultimate cheeky pony who liked to dump me on the floor frequently! He was really talented and won everything when he had a jockey who could keep up with him (my sister!). He was our first pony and we still miss him more than anything.
Cassie (left) is our old girl who is young at heart! She’ll be 26 soon but she still makes us laugh all the time. She loves jumping and jumps everything like it’s a competition (speedy and she doesn’t any time turning!)
Beauty (right) is a sensitive soul but has a heart of gold. She’s so gentle and kind but was quite nervous when we first got her, it’s nice to see how she’s settled into a quieter life with us!

Portraits of pets – A dog called Moocher

This beautiful dog is called Moocher.  His portrait was painted in oils. 
My client emailed me in February 2019 to say that he had spent many hours on the internet looking for someone that did portraits of pets.  He said there were so many for him to choose from and was spoilt for choice.  However the thing that really struck him with my portraits of pets is no matter what the subject the eyes always look like they  have a soul behind them.  It was very important to him to have a portrait that portrayed life and soul of Moocher.  Moocher was 19 years old and had very recently passed away leaving a huge gap in their lives.  The portrait was to be a great comfort to them all.

Moochers portrait took several weeks to complete.  I work by building up thin layers to achieve the detail I’m after.  Below is the clients comments when he saw the portrait.

Moochers Painting – client comments

I cannot tell you how much I want to give this to my friend and hope he will treasure it, he is so real looking I think it will likely upset him , but only because you have created something that is a true work of art that IS moocher.
His gaze follows you round the room like he is watching you, it was the very thing that I wanted and drew me to you and your pictures in the first place –the eyes, and you have captured this fundamental important thing that gives him life and gives your creation -your picture a soul.

It’s so lovely to hear the story of each portraits of pets that I do.  Each and everyone of them are unique.  Some are funny stories and some are sad where the pet has passed away.  My goal is to give comfort and happy memories to those who have lost a pet.   For those who’s pets are still with us, a happy keepsake to have forever.  Below is Moochers story written by his family.

Moochers story by his family

Moocher the Staffy was nearing his circle of life, he was 19 years old coming on 20, I knew I had to do something special to remember him when the inevitable happened, he was my friends dog but I however, loved him as though he was my own.
So I came across Lorraine’s site , after many hours and days searching threads , looking at recommendations and other artists many hundreds of pictures across the internet-yet Lorraine’s all had amazing eyes that drew you in to the subject.
So the awful time arrived, we were all devastated, a numb feeling. I contacted Lorraine, and said I was too upset to even look through any photos, she totally understood where I was coming from, and nothing was ever rushed; I had to get this picture right.
Moocher was such a lovely dog, as anyone who has owned SBT breeds will really know, they love human contact and touch, they cuddle you when down and know when you need their love-you have to force these dogs to hate, they just want to protect and feel your warmth.
He was such a gentle dog, the temperament of a gentle pussy- cat, but with all the finesse of a rhino!
And what a character, He would sit on your lap if ignored, his big head at eye level with yours staring at you nonchalantly, his heavy clumping weight digging in you , denying you the ability to talk to someone or watch telly, where your head went so did his , keeping eye contact, so you couldn’t blank him.
Like a little truffle hog, grunting away snuffling for things he shouldn’t have , chocolate, any bag left unattended , lipstick even , nothing was safe, although grapes would often offend him as he would spit them out in disgust.
He had many aliments when older, but would never give up, even till the end he would try to stand up though too weak, to try and lick me – give me a kiss, never mind his pain, that mere dog gave me and so many others so much love in his short life.
And his eyes, he would just look at you, and you could not resist giving him a love, yet another belly rub, he brought that out in you-affection, you could not stop yourself.
I was so worried how my friend would accept the picture- he had took everything from the house to remind him of his lost dog and had no pictures up at all.
When Lorraine sent me it, I just stared at that painting for hours, and knew that it was more than a picture, it was something with depth and feeling, it had a soul.
I unveiled it to my friend, was worried how he would react-I said “I hope this is your dog” he sat just staring into his eyes for ages, getting more emotional, then got up, stroked his nose and said that’s moocher.
He cradled that painting with the gentleness that you would a child, but held it tight, and then took him home, back where he belongs; content he is still watching over us.
I still stroke him every time, as does everyone else that sees him-his nose will be rubbed away if not too careful, he is hard to resist our little Moocher X

Portraits of pets – 2019

I had the delight to paint so many portraits of pets last year, in pastels and oils and it would take me hours to post them all on this blog!  The ones you see above are just a tiny few of them that have stories to tell.  

At the beginning of the year I had several oils to do.  I had two  Rottweiler dogs and a boxer dog for the same client.  A beautiful German Shepherd dog in oils called Iris and lots of lovely  portraits of pets that were painted in pastels.  Head over to my galleries where you will see more of my work.  If you have Instagram or Facebook, pop over to see many more of my portraits that I have posted during 2019.

If you would like to contact me about portraits of pets, head over to my contact page, I’d love to hear from you. 

Lorraine