older sketches

My dear friend Leah sent me some pics of some sketches I did for her. They're both pencil renderings, of which I hope to put up more of on here.

Here is one of a friesian horse :

and a collie:

Robin

Hello again :)

This is a painting I did for a wonderful lady to say thank you for a beautiful scarf that she knitted for me. I was told she liked robins, and so here's the painting I did for her :

My beloved puppy!

This is a painting of my parents' dog, Chelsea, who just passed away a couple of months ago. She was the first dog I ever had, and my daughter grew up with her (she was only one yr old when my daughter was born). This is a belated Christmas present for my mom and dad, and they haven't actually seen the painting yet (I'll be mailing it next week!), so this is a sneak preview ;)

The painting will be matted in a bit (the picture captures too much on the right side). It would also be nice to get a better quality photo of it, as my little digital camera isn't all that great. Maybe once it arrives out home, my parents can take a better one with their super-deluxe cameras! I'll repost it later if they do :)
I'm also wondering if it would be helpful if I post the original pictures that these paintings are based on, for reference for anyone who's interested in hiring me to paint a picture for them. Any comments or suggestions about this are appreciated! Thanks!

Paintings for charity

Over the holidays, I had the privilege of watching a documentary on the annual dolphin slaughter that takes place in Taiji, Japan. The documentary is called, "The Cove", and I recommend that if you have any love for our aquatic brethren, you give it a watch. I do not have a lot of money - on the contrary, I have been experiencing some financial difficulties as of late - but I wanted to help out the people who are fighting to stop these atrocities from continuing in any way that I could. So, my plan is to put on my first art show, which the date for it will be decided once I have the majority of the paintings done. I am focusing my paintings on dolphins and whales, and have plans to do at least 20 pieces. As the details get worked out, I will post them on here, in case anyone is interested  in either attending the show, or possibly purchasing one of the paintings. I plan on donating 100% of the proceeds to the institution responsible for showing the world what is happening each year in Japan, the Earth Island Institute with their 'Save Japan Dolphins' project. I have yet to figure out how I will pay for the framing of the pieces, but I'm sure some solution will present itself.

I began these series of paintings with this painting :

I am not 100% sold on whether I will put this painting in the exhibition or not, as I had terrible difficulty with the watercolour paper I used for it. It seemed to disintegrate under my paintbrush, which, in turn, made the image look kinda fuzzy. I have been told that I'm too hard on myself or too critical of my art (what artist isn't?), so it may end up in the show, or I may re-paint it, maybe a little larger. But, I thought I'd post my efforts, anyways :)
Needless to say, I bought some better paper, and will paint the rest of my pieces on something that won't fall apart with water (watercolour paper that won't fall apart when wet....a 'novel' idea.....)

*edit* I thought I should post the website link for the organization I'm supporting :
http://www.savejapandolphins.org/
It's worth viewing!

Christmas painting....

Hi again!

This is one of a series of paintings and drawings that I did this past Christmas for presents. I found out that the person I painted this for had a love for goldfish. They had had pet goldfish over the years, and the effort that they took to take care of them was more than I had ever experienced, and I am a big animal person myself.
Here is a pic of it in the frame :

I know the colour of the frame is not so complimentary to the colours in the painting, but sometimes you have to use what you have!
I used watercolour pencils to sketch this guy out first, and then added a bit of water here and there to blend it - this was the first time I'd used watercolour pencils in a painting before, and I loved it! I'll probably do more like this in the future sometime :)

Hello and Welcome!

Hi all!
I'm starting up this blog to have a place to post some of my paintings and drawings online, to showcase my art, with the hope of someday professionally selling my pieces and bringing in some more commissioned work. I have painted in watercolour for almost 20 years, creating presents for people, and have even done a couple commissioned pieces. But, I have been terrible at documenting my paintings, and so it has been difficult to 'sell' my skills. I want to try to change this by starting this blog. I also have started painting more frequently, and have found the pleasure it brings helpful in focusing my energy in other areas - my work (animation) has been easier to complete, and I have found more enjoyment in simple acts, like cleaning the house.
My purpose for posting my work online is to hopefully showcase what I am capable of, and allow people to hire me by commission to paint portraits, etc. and start a personal career doing fine art.

I'll start this blog with a painting that I did around 9 years ago, for someone who was very special to me. They had a love of lions, and so I painted this for them.

Here is a picture of the painting itself :

and here is one of it framed :

It's quite a large piece, measuring about 3' by 2' or so.
I hope to paint many more on this scale in the near future!