Autumn Skye

This is a commission, completed mid November this year; but as it was intended as a Christmas present, I have scheduled the post for Christmas day.

I was asked to paint a family pet, a Cocker spaniel. Slightly reluctant to produce a standard "pet portrait", I suggested placing the animal in the landscape. This seemed to go down well, so I went for a walk with the owner and her dog.

Blurred, hasty shots of a moving dog aside, the trickiest aspect of this approach turned out to be scale. The
downs were just Too Big (and in the wrong place - or perhaps it was just that our path didn't provide any suitable foregrounding opportunities), but the trees - still hanging on to their autumn leaves - provided a colourful alternative.

In-progress sequence showing the acrylic
underpainting and two stages of the oil painting.

Oil on box canvas, 50 x 50 cm
18 November 2012
SOLD