A Painter and a Dancer

Animals don't like to pose for a picture, and this is what distinguishes animal portrait painting from human portraiture. Capturing the animal's attention the entire time is a challenge for an artist. This is the expertise of a female artist who resides in Wilmington. The Delaware family are her relatives. Her grandfather painted a famous collection of sea and landscape artwork. At the young age of 3, this female artist began painting as well.

She found herself drawing animals most of the time. She was 12 when she drew illustration for children's books and was younger still at the age of 10 when she had her first show. She learned all about the different types of dance with the help of dance teachers in Philadelphia. Among the solo dances she did for the many years she was a dancer was a death scene depicting her accidentally drinking from a kerosene lamp.

Of all the animals she has painted portraits of, what interests her the most are canines. She has an interesting way of starting a dog's portrait. She draws different sketches while the owner tries to keep the dog from moving too much.

Her pencil seems to sail all across her sketchpad as she decides on the best pose for this particular model. In the meantime she is constantly talking to the dog, telling him how beautiful he is, what a good dog and so forth. To maintain the animal's interest, she uses a variety of props and sometimes even bits of food. She asks for the photographs that the owner might have of the dog and seeks permission from him to make copies for her collection. She cuts strands of hair from the dog's tail, ears, and tummy to collect and observe their colors. For every dog, there are snips that she files.

Afterwards, she concerns herself with the pose of the dog and the composition with a suitable background. When you know what type of dog or animal will be used, then you will be able to select a composition. To get the background for a portrait of a Chesapeake Bay retriever, she had to sit in a duck blind and make the sketches while there.

She believes that animals have viewpoints regarding something, just like humans. One story that shows how true this was was when an American pointer snuck up behind an artist and then chewed up her painting. It took a large amount of medication to treat the dog after that incident, so the painting must have really not appealed to him.

If the portrait features a beagle or a basset, she includes a paw print in the scenery and puts the kennel club's identifying symbols on the back. With her dog's assistance, she even obtained abstract backgrounds. Animals are bent on giving artists a difficult time. One model ran off with one of the female dogs, putting a sudden end to all portrait painting for that day. This may seem like an ordinary thing, but it does make one wonder if the unusual always happens while an animal's portrait is being painted.

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