Part sculpture, part painting, these wall hangings are made from pieces of a heritage Valley Oak tree from the border of Walnut Creek, CA and Contra Costa County – also known as the Boundary Oak.
I had extra “found” landscapes on hand, and continuing that theme was partly out of necessity as my art sources and studio access got disrupted to varying degrees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
These portraits are more accurately “animal friends” rather than pets – this time, horses! The first portrait in the middle was a commission, and the two on the sides are horses at The Right Step, Inc.
This is the most ambitious pet portrait I’ve done to date: five distinct cats, from completely separate reference photos, combined to appear to be sitting together.
While figuring out what to paint for this year for the Works/SJ benefit, I realized I’ve done a few paintings that have aligned into a new series of their own.
The late afternoon sun and shifting weather created this extraordinary light show with the glassware that splayed, rippled, and caught an occasional tiny rainbow.
I put out a call for pet portraits early in the year and have done quite a few since then. Most of them I held off on posting because they were gifts and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. This batch is cats!