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.

This is the handsome Dali again. I wanted to capture his profile and the dark red background makes a wonderful contrast with his coat. When you see this painting in the flesh (in the paint?) he seems to glow.

Pug In Red
10×8 inch oil on board

This handsome Staffordshire bull terrier dog was sitting outside the supermarket waiting for his master to come out with the shopping. No doubt hoping for a treat! I thought he was very handsome and I loved his profile so I thought I’d try and capture him in paint.

12×9 inches
acrylic on board

Here’s a close up of him

This is Dali and pug dog. I liked the expression on his face as he lays in his basket, keeping an eye out for extra treats! And what huge eyes he has!

This is a 10×8 acrylic painting on board. He is sold.

I painted Dali on a rough surface made with Golden’s mineral fibre paste on board. It’s the first time I tried a painting on this surface and it was really interesting. It’s similar to paper, absorbent and textured. You can see it in the close up detail.

Tigua and his friend the duck. Hot summer days are meant for chilling out with friends, even if they are garden ornaments. :-)

This is a 16×12 acrylic on canvas and it’s sold.

This is Muscat. A pretty Tonkinese. Doesn’t she have the most amazing eyes?

This is a 16×12 acrylic on canvas. It’s sold.

Todays painting is a British Blue cat asleep in her basket. These cats have so much colour in their coats, blue and silver, greens and greys and warm reds and violets depending on the light. So it was a wonderful challenge to capture her using a range of colours, to get the warmth of her coat in the shadows against the blue highlights where the sun makes her fur shine.

12×9 inches
acrylic on board

Add the wonderful colours from the basket and her wonderful pose and I just couldn’t resist her. :-) Here’s a close up detail….

This is Lola, a pretty English Bull Terrier. I asked for models recently on my facebook page and Sarah volunteered the lovely Lola. Isn’t she adorable? She was perfect for an idea I had in mind. I want to paint black and white models on a red background. So I’m going to paint Lola on a large 20×16 inch canvas with a red ground.

I also thought I’d try an take photos all the way through the process so you can see the growth of the painting.

This is the sketch on the canvas.

Here is the under painting. I’m using transparent red iron oxide for the under painting. Its a lovely rich warm colour.

more to come soon.

I haven’t been updating Facebook or my blog as often as I’d like over the past month. Two of our cats have been ill. One of the Bengals, Ming, has Irritable Bowel Syndrome and had a bit of a crisis. He needed a stay in the vets but is back home now and looking better. Although he’s already complaining about his food!

And our elderly tabby has been getting thinner and thinner, even though he’s been eating really well. But now he’s on thyroid meds and putting the weight back on slowly but surely.

This is Ming sitting in the sun. I did this painting last year for the Society Of Feline Artists show. He was sitting in the same spot today enjoying the winter sunshine. :-)
It’s nice to have them both looking well again.

These two beautiful Siamese cats belong to Gill Barnes. I painted them sleeping together on silk cushions. The photos suffer a little bit from using flash, but it’s been so dark recently that its impossible to get good photos without it. But hopefully you’ll be able to see how beautiful these two boys are.

Here are close up details of the painting.

This is a 16×12 inch acrylic painting on canvas.

This lovely lady is Lili Mei. And yes, she really was sitting in a plate. She is quite a character and we included the bowl of nectarines in the painting because she loved nectarines.

This was a wonderful painting to do. I loved the colours in her coat, the tortie markings in her points and the warm creaminess of her fur. I wanted to capture the warm sun coming in through the window. With soft yellows, warm greens and lilacs, her coat really came to life.

I also had fun with the flowers, using lots of thick, juicy paint to create the flower forms.

This is a 20×16 inch acrylic painting.

This is Tom and his young friend Cherry. Two beautiful Siamese cats.

This is a recent commission, painted in acrylic on paper.