A grand day out !

Yesterday I had a wonderful day, down at Earl's Court in London, for the Discover Dogs Show.

I had two friends in the Scruffts Crossbreed of the Year show.
They have heats all round the country and approx 1200 dogs entered overall.
My friends had one dog in the Prettiest Bitch category and one in the Golden Oldie category.

Roxy was in the Golden Oldie and she won that class !
She's a Pets as Therapy Dog also - and she's about 9 years old. What a girl!

Here she is, with her mum, Nicola :)

Gerri and her dog Tilly were in the Prettiest Bitch class, and Tilly came 2nd !
What a girl she is!

Tilly has such a gorgeous face ..

Well done to both girls.. they were complete superstars!

Talking of superstars,  those of you in England may recognise this little chappie "Harvey" from the TV advert, and the star of Midsomer Murders

and in the booth next to him was Ripley - the dog you've all been taking for a walk! Sadly just as I lined the camera up , they were called to go into a ring for showing, so no picture.

I also had the privilege of meeting Nicola's grandmother, who took a moment to tell me that the painting I did of Roxy  HERE made her cry when she saw it on the computer and then again in real life, once it was delivered. She said it was so much better than on the comp - and was SO Roxy, it took her breath away.  That was lovely for me to hear,  I'll treasure that always . 

Where was Missy in all this?  I wasn't allowed to take her, because she wasn't in a show, so she stayed at home, all nicely curled up, waiting for me to return.

and that look?.............. "Where's my treats, mummy?"

She knows me too well, here's her stash from my day out :)

For Sandra and Prabal

For Sandra and Prabal, who very kindly tagged me in a post.
Usually I don't do tag posts or awards, as you may have noticed.
But this one was relating to art and my personal feelings, so I'm having a go!

The questions:

– Your most beautiful post
– Your most popular post
– Your most controversial post
– Your most helpful post
– A post whose success surprised you
– A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved
– The post that you are most proud of


My most beautiful post is also the one I am most proud of. 
In Immolatum I see the beauty of the sacrifice that Jesus made for me. His face, though in pain, is beautiful to me. 
I am most proud of it, because I wanted to paint Him since first I put brush to paper, some 14 years ago. Only with this post, did I feel ready. Its an achievement and a milestone for me. 

My most popular post is the one where I talked of The Great Scheme of Things and Artistic Ambition
How we progress as artists and yet keep our feet on the ground. And my own artistic ambition. Not letters after my name, nor prize winning paintings... you'll have to read it to see what! 

Most controversial is tricky.  I don't aim to be controversial. I paint with love and feeling. 
Perhaps I shall give the title of this to The Diamond Roxy
Not because of any great controversy, but from the comments. Some of my arty friends showed how I could possibly improve and the owner of the dog leapt to the painting's defense saying she wouldn't change a thing. That's about as controversial as I get :) 

My most helpful post


was a recent one, Its All About Art . I had been to an art event in London and one of the artists there that I was talking to had free online lessons. I posted the link so that all my blogging friends who may not have access to classes could get some tuition online. 

a post who success surprised me was Jellyfish: Black and White
Its had more views in the last month than it had when I posted it! 

a post that didn't get the attention it deserved has to be one from when I first started blogging and I only had a few followers. 
Inspiration.. how Sowing the Seeds came to be

The original posts that Sandra and Prabal tagged me in were posted last week when we were in the throes of the first week of the kitchen rebuild.  I'm late, so I'm not tagging anyone. If you haven't participated and you'd like to look back over your own blog, please do copy the questions and post on your own blog.  Kind regards, Pat xx

Surprise!

We received a surprise in the mail!
It came from Nicola, who is the lady I painted "The Diamond Roxy" for.

Thank you so much Nic, we are thrilled to receive your gift :)

I'll help unwrap!

  

Yahoo! My favourite!

Mummy loves to look at beautiful pics

whilst I like to munch!

Go on, give me a treat

if I give a paw, can I have another, please?

Hanging 2

How wonderful!
I have a photo now of the darling Roxy hanging up in her new home.
I'm thrilled to see her so well framed and so obviously loved.

The Diamond Roxy

And here it is, the finished painting:

The Diamond Roxy

Roxy 6

Roxy's colouring is black, tan and white.

In this stage, I have painted the tan. The white is, as ever, the paper left unpainted. That doesn't mean I don't put some colour on - I usually put a french ultra/aliz crimson mix on, for the shadows.

Roxy 5

In this stage, I have painted a collar on Roxy and painted the football.

If a dog has black in their coat, I usually add a red collar, no matter what they wear normally - because it makes the whole painting sing. You'll see what I mean when you see the finished painting. A brown collar wouldn't cut the mustard. 

Roxy 3 & 4

A treat today - two photos!

First one shows the eyes, nose and lip - and the second, I have completed the mouth.
I paint the eyes first and once happy with those, I continue. There's no point to carry on if unhappy with the eyes, they are so hard to fix retrospectively.

Roxy part 2

Here in this stage, I have painted the background .
All I am aiming for here is a suggestion of grass and sky, and a little shadow.
Hopefully I have that!

Roxy Begins

Today starts my latest dog painting - that of the very special Roxy.

She was taken in when she was five and a half years old by her current owner; who trained her up and brought out the diamond within.

Roxy is now a PAT dog (Pets as Therapy), she is so steady she has been used as a Stooge dog to help other dogs overcome behaviour problems - and she just won the Golden Oldie championship at Scruffts ( for non pedigrees) this year.

To read more of Roxy, click  HERE

Adieu, Duchess

Today's post is a tribute to a beautiful girl who passed away yesterday.
I had the honour of meeting Roxy - The Duchess- and became firm friends with her mum.
The Duchess was a little sweetie, who will be sorely missed.
Until the day we meet again in Heaven, rest easy Duchess.
Look down kindly on your mum whose heart is breaking from the separation.
Adieu xx