Final Commission

I wanted to share my final commission with you even though I haven't posted here in quite some time.  I've decided to retire from painting pet portraits or other commission work and this gorgeous white German Shepherd Dog makes a lovely good-bye post.

I want to make it clear that I adore painting animals and pets in particular.  There's nothing more satisfying than knowing one of my paintings is paying tribute to someone's beloved pet.  But a series of events this past year has shown me that I need to change directions in my art.

The first clue I had was my husband retiring this past spring and wanting to do some traveling.  That was fine, one can work around various trips and travel plans, right?    I had a couple of commissions on the books as of the end of summer but neither client was in a big rush.  I was able to make a good start on one of the commissions but we couldn't get decent photos of this big guy until right before my husband & I left for an extended tour of areas way west of us.

When we returned, I quickly finished the one commission and got started on this one.  As it turned out though, I caught some kind of a flu bug and was in bed sick for nearly 3 weeks!  I couldn't paint even if I'd felt like it because I was coughing so much and so hard that any brush stroke went far off the mark!  I finally got to feeling well enough to paint again only to find that all that coughing had pulled some muscles and I couldn't walk!  Another week just laying around and all of a sudden, it's Thanksgiving!

I should have known I was being led (pushed?) in another direction especially when a series of events involving my mother in law again had us on the road.  To be honest, by this time I had completely lost my mojo and nothing was working for this portrait.  My client was incredibly patient and understanding which made me want to finish it even more than before.

Finally, I woke up at 2:30 in the morning a couple of weeks ago feeling the need to paint on this portrait & everything started clicking into place for it and I finished it yesterday with client approval this morning!

During January, I was also given the opportunity to display my art in a gallery in a beautiful town on our North Carolina coast called Beaufort.  The gallery is wonderful as is the gallery owner, Angie Williams, and if you're ever in Beaufort, you ought to stop in and see what all she has to offer.  The gallery is called the Artestry Hideaway and it's at 412 Front Street with the entrance from the boardwalk.  You can see some of the beautiful things by checking out her FaceBook page:  https://www.facebook.com/TheArtestryHideaway.

After losing my mojo for so long with a commission in the works, I realized I just couldn't continue to accept commissions any longer.  Plus the fact that both my husband's mother and my father are very elderly and live some distance from us means that we have to be able to go to them at a moment's notice.  It's just not fair to clients to have to wait while we work out family issues!

So, I'm giving up pet portrait commissions and will probably give up this blog.  I'm going to set up a new website and domain name and probably a new blog.  However, the blog may be a part of my new website.  Whatever I decide to do, I'll be sure to post it here before any major changes are made! 

Thanks to all of you who stuck with me all this time!