Pets in Watercolor

Last week, my neighbor stopped by and asked by a commissioned piece with her poodle as the subject with a bird flying overhead and the dog looking up and…and…and. I paused for half a minute listening to the expectations and thinking to myself, could I do this? I could not remember if I’ve ever painted a dog, much less a complicated scene. I didn’t want to over commit and get her hopes up. I like a challenge, but I don’t always say yes.

Quickly responding, I said, we’ll I’ve never done a dog in a scene before, but I love a challenge! I tell you what, you send me photos of your dog and I’ll work on it and let’s see what happens. Sounds good, she said.

After a week of studiously trying to create the expected scene on the preferred 6x8inch size, I realized it was just too much information to put into a small piece of art, especially when I don’t do realism. My art need room to breathe!

When I finally let go of trying to meet her expectations, I was free to explore painting the dog in watercolor, in my way. That’s when I reached a point where the fun returned.

I painted two that I sent back over to my neighbor and she said she loved both and it’s exactly what she wanted! Go figure, right?