I’ve been working hard to finish the paintings and prints for the American Bullmastiff Association art auction next month. Dax, Rocky and CJ at Bijoux Falls are on their way and hopefully they’ll help to raise much needed funds for bullmastiff rescue and health.

Here they are…

Rocky

CJ at The Bijoux Falls

Dax

Here is the first of the paintings for the winners of the Bullmastiff Competition I ran earlier this year.

Urbandream Honky Tonk Women for Jaarmoel aka Dax owned by Carol Wilson. Isn’t she a cutie? :-)

I love the colour contrasts between the lilacs, blues and greens and the warm ochre tones in her coat. She also has the sweetest expression with her paw firmly on her toy. She’s clearly a girl who knows her own mind.

This is an 8×8 inch acrylic painting on board. A giclée print of the painting will be going to the American Bullmastiff Association Nationals for the art auction.

Thank you Dax for being a lovely model!

Many thanks to everyone who took part in the Bullmastiff Photo Contest. It was a great success, thanks to all of you who entered your fabulous dogs!

There were 137 entries and over 10,000 votes! There were so many lovely photos, I wish I could paint all of them! See them here.

But the votes are in and the winners will come as no surprise because they were way out in front. In fact they were so close that I’ve decided to give two prizes! After all, it’s all for a good cause.

The two beautiful bullys who will be up for auction at the ABA art auction this autumn are CJ and Dax. I hope they’ll raise lots of money for bullmastiffs in need.

Now to start painting! :-)

Creating art to help bullmastiffs in need

Is your dog a handsome pup? Good looking dogs or natural comedians, I’m looking for models to inspire some new Bullmastiff art.

As some of you know, I donate work each year to the American Bullmastiff Association art auction to help raise much needed funds for bullmastiffs. I want to do a new piece for this years auction and I thought it’d be fun to have a photo competition to find new models.

Prizes
A 10×8 portrait of your dog for yourself and the warm, fuzzy feeling of making a contribution to the important work of the ABA. I will create 2 pieces of art from the winning photo, one for the winner and one to be sold in the ABA art auction. All proceeds of the auction go to the ABA.

Photos
They can be any kind of photos, funny, sweet, or just plain good looking, as long as they are Bullmastiffs.

They must be YOUR photos of YOUR dog! This is important folks, you must be the owner of the copyright of the images you enter, so please don’t enter photos other people have taken.

What to do if you are on facebook

Go to The Painted Dog page on facebook and click the like button.
Look for the photo contest button on the left hand side and click it.
Enter your photos of your dog.
Vote for your favourites.
Share the link and ask your friends to vote too.
The most popular picture will win the prize but also, I hope, raise the most money for ABA at the auction. That’s the important bit!

What to do if you are NOT on facebook

Email me your photos at den@thepaintedcat.co.uk
include your name and location and of course your dogs name and title of the photo if any. I will add them to the album so people can vote on them.

The Rules

The Dogs
They must be photos of your dogs. They must be Bullmastiffs. It all raises money for ABA. You can submit as many photos as you like.

Copyright
You must be the photographer! This is important folks, you must be the owner of the copyright of the images you enter, so please don’t enter photos other people have taken. Your submission of the photo and entry form is your guarantee that you are the author and copyright holder of the photo.

Ownership/Use Rights
By entering the contest, you are giving me, Denise Laurent, permission to use your photos to create works of art.

Judging
Vote for your favourite photos. Tell your friends and get them to vote too. The most popular photo will win.

Inappropriate Content
This is all about the dogs. Obscene, provocative or otherwise questionable content will be removed.

Winners
The winners will be notified by email within one week of the winner announcement date, using the email address provided on the entry form. No financial compensation will be provided to winners.

To go with the 2011 Cat Calendar I now have the 2011 Dog Calendar with twelve of my dog paintings to wag their tails through the year.

The calendar is A4, 8 x 11 inches in size. There are 12 pages, 1 page per month,as well as a cover and a back. It’s wire bound so it’s easy to hang on the wall and change the pages.

Buy The Painted Dog 2011 Wall Calendar in the shop. Both UK and USA versions are available.

These two dogs, a bullmastiff and French bulldog are the best of friends. They enjoy each others company and love to sleep together. I love the way Clark is using hank as a pillow. :-)

This will be up for auction at the American Bullmastiff Association art auction in September.

This  is a 20×16 inch painting on board of the famous and handsome dog Brahmin, standing in front of the Boston Lighthouse.

This is a very special painting. It’s going to be auctioned at the American Bullmastiff Association Art Auction, in Boston, on the 24th of September. The proceeds will go to the ABA to help with the work they do with bullmastiffs. All animals charities are struggling in these difficult times, so I hope this painting will help raise much needed funds for ABA and bullmastiffs.

Another bullmastiff painting, this is Liam and Truman In The Snow. I love bullmastiffs standing in the snow, there’s something about the colour of their coats against the whiter snow and the blue, lilac shadows that is so lovely to paint. These two handsome boys are father and son.

This is a 22×16 acrylic painting on stretched canvas.

A close up detail of the canvas.

I have adjusted the format of The Look Out, making it longer and making Shelby a bit smaller in the painting. I’ve done a fair bit of work on her coat and expression and experimented with the addition of a pair of eagles flying through the pass.

This is the finished painting. I’ve adjusted the mountains behind Shelby into a more pleasing shape and added some autumn trees in the pass.

Here’s a close up detail…

This is an oil painting of Chet, a bullmastiff. This was a recent commission. She’s posing with a stick and has a nice half profile. I like the warm colour of her coat against the blue grey of the boards of the decking.

Here is a close up of her. She has beautiful eyes.

A close up detail of the canvas.

This is a new work in progress, a new bullmastiff painting called The Look Out. The model is Shelby who lives with Gail in Alaska.

In this second sketch I’ve changed the composition. I’ve made the format wider and moved Shelby away from the middle of the picture. I’ve also raised the level of the mountains on the right hand side.

A small painting on paper. This is about 11 x 8 inches, mixed media on watercolour paper. These three look so comfy don’t they?