Yellow Labrador mix pet portrait pastel painting

Sometimes it is not possible to acquire that perfect pet photo reference that is so important in creating a suitable portrait. Most often it is because the pet has passed and finding good photographs can be almost impossible. However, I can generally use several not-so-good poses to come up with a nice composition that the client will be pleased with. Such was the situation when creating the portrait of lovely "Maggie", the beloved family pet of my client's friend.

In this pose, I had to use the head shot of a different image and "magically" transfer it to the body pose of another photo. It is not always easy because one needs to take into consideration angles, lighting, color and of course, proportions.  Maggie was a well fed pooch and so I strived to capture her true (full) silhouette...

This dog is yellow Labrador most likely mixed with German shepherd.  I wonder what breed she got her white feet from?

Pet Portrait of "Maggie"

14"x18"

pastel

 commission

Yellow Labrador Dog Pet Portrait commission

When I first saw the reference image I was using for Ollie's portrait I thought oh, how much FUN it was going to be to draw this pose! One can't help but smile looking at Ollie's charming face as she stares right back at you.
This portrait was commissioned to remember all the joy that Ollie brought to the lives of her human family.

Ollie

Yellow Labrador Retriever

Pastel

11x14

commission

Painting of Chocolate and Yellow Labrador Retriever portrait

Some months, time goes buy so fast that I barely remember the days. I work on many different projects simultaneously and so it can be easy to loose track of the world around me.

Anyways, I home to find more time to post more updates to this blog. Here is a commissioned piece that was presented to a happy Dad on Father's Day.  I am told that he feels like the dogs keep looking at him no matter where he moves to in the room and he is quite elated by that! It's like his dogs are again by his side, keeping him company.

 

Apollo & Cassey

11x14

pastel

COMMISSION

Temagami Lake Ontario sunrise painting in pastel

This pastel landscape painting of a lake sunrise is the second piece featured at the GNO's Nouveau Louvre Exhibit in Sudbury, Ontario. The dark spruce trees and their mirror reflection contrast against the pale baby blue and coral sky/water. What a glorious calm morning on this beautiful pristine Northern Ontario lake....the start to a picture perfect fishing day!

SOLD

Temagami Sunrise

Pastel

8.5x12

Private Collection

Animal Artistry of Colette Theriault now available on eBay

After much thought,  I decided to bite the bullet and invest some time into marketing some of my larger artwork on eBay.  I am starting with only a few listings for now because of time constraints but also to get a feel of the system and if it works for me.

Shipping to USA and CANADA. The current listings are as follows:

 White Tailed Deer (doe) Painting in Pastel

22" x 16"

pastel

 Click here to purchase artwork

Tuxedo Cat Portrait, Pencil Drawing

25" x 11"

graphite, charcoal, cp

Click here to purchase artwork

A few recent awards and news

Back in July, I was super thrilled that all three of my submissions were accepted into the La Cloche Juried Art Show (Whitefish Falls) AND  absolutely overjoyed that my miniature pastel painting earned First Place in the pastel category!  To top it off, on closing day I found out that I had sold two pieces!! Have a look...

"La Cloche Glory"

pastel 

2.5" x 3.5"

SOLD

"Anchored Off Shore"

pastel

8" x 10"

SOLD

"Balancing Act"

pastel

13" x 9"

Available

(please contact the artist)

Daylily Flower Painting in Pastel SOLD!

I love working pastel on velour paper. Here's another variation of the daylily flower from my garden.  Because it produces so many blooms, the plant seems to never stop flowering, even though each individual flower only lasts one day.

Daylily no. 2

 8.5" x 6"

pastel
SOLD

What Wild Animal Painting is on my easel?

Some of you might remember this painting I started many months ago and only progressed to the storage bin.  It is a large piece for my standards, and part of the reason for the delay was that I needed to acquired a stand up easel to complete the piece. But enough excuses...here is a bit of background I added today. 

 

Christmas Craft and Gift Show

This year I will be participating in Confederation High School's Annual Christmas Craft and Gift Show, December 7th and 8th. I will be showcasing many of my prints (framed and unframed), several original paintings as well as Christmas cards.  Please stop by to have a look and have a chat.
Your company would be greatly appreciated.

Do extend this invitation to your friends, family, and acquaintances.

Hoping to see you then,

Colette
 

1918 Main St, Val Caron, Ontario

Sparrow painting update

Before continuing on the tree trunk bark, I decided it was best to finish working the background and redrawing the bird so that it is now larger.  I like this so much better as the bird's size looks more proportionate with the barbed wire.

I may end up cropping the painting differently because I notice the larger bird is now too centred.
Several options include further cropping out the right hand side to move the bird out of centre or making the paining square format by cropping out some of both sides....we'll see!



Insect Painting in progress

 The next three paintings in the butterfly series will feature the egg, larvae, pupae and adult stages of the same species of butterfly. 

I am quite certain many of you will recognize this caterpillar and the species of butterfly it belongs to. The toxic plant it feeds on is called milkweed (swamp milkweed in this case) and the noxious substance is absorbed by the insect and persists in the butterfly stage to make it unpalatable to any would-be predators.

The pastel painting below of the larval stage will also include the egg stage as I will add tiny egg cases on one of the leaves.

Maple Bush Landscape Painting

This special request was a rather large painting I completed for a client. I don't normally take on commissions of this type but felt it was time to push the limits of my comfort zone and explore something other than animals and wildlife.

The reference photos used for this painting came from my own collection (main scene) as well as from the client (gentleman). The painting is a gift to commemorate the life of a special father and grandfather who enjoyed spending time at the maple bush.

"Sweet Memories"

pastel

23"x16"

 



New Wildlife Painting on the Easel

Now that I have all my current commissions done, I can concentrate on working on some pieces for my upcoming show in May 2012. I want to have a few more new paintings to hang, and decided to tackle the larger pieces first.

The sleeping wolf I am portraying is one I had the pleasure to meet and photograph last August at a wildlife sanctuary in Maine. I am using pastels on light gray suede board.

Trumpeter Swan Portrait update

I worked on the foreground and completed the bank at the bottom of the painting. I've enhanced the overall portrait by going over with more pastel and completed the remaining areas in the middle of the painting. The next step, I will complete the water above the swans.

Heron bird painting wip

Click image to view full size.

Another update before I call it a night!

Peacock painting

I'm just pooped from working all day at this...but love how it is coming along.

Close up of dog eye pastel painting

This portrait is of a dog named Rilee who recently lost her life to cancer. I had finished this painting for a while but held off putting on my website because I didn't want the recipient to see their gift before they received it. So here it is, my first attempt at pastels on black velour paper.
You can view the page on my website here: http://www.colettetheriault.com/descriptions/petdescriptions/Husky_mix_eye_painting.php

Pastel horse on Suede Paper

My new found love of pastel pencils on suede paper. I also tried velour paper and it is quite comparable and the effect much the same.
This is a work in progress I started a while ago. This painting is of a grey Arabian horse that I photographed one summer during a local horse jumping show.