Pet Portraits & Animal Art

Animals have always been the subject the studio comes back to. The dog photography started years before the watercolour pet portraits did, and both have grown into their own ongoing threads of work. This page brings them together.

Dog photography

The photography side of this studio is built around dogs, and it always has been. The earliest prints in the catalogue are from walks with family dogs — a lurcher named Moss, a border collie who would sit perfectly still for a long lens and then bolt the moment a treat appeared. Since then, the roster of photographed dogs has grown considerably, and the collection now covers maybe thirty or forty individual animals.

What makes the work specific, I think, is that it's always done on the dog's own ground. Their bench. Their corner of the garden. The path they walk every morning. A dog photographed at home in the field they know looks completely different from one photographed on a studio backdrop, and the studio version always looks slightly wrong to me. All the dog photography in this catalogue was shot outdoors, in available light, on the animal's own turf.

Current prints available include:

• Alfie on his bench — the most-requested image from the whole catalogue. A golden retriever, his bench at the end of the garden, October light. Edition of 25, A3 and A4.
• Two greyhounds, Wiltshire — a pair of ex-racers photographed in a back field. Long legs, long shadows. Edition of 15.
• Border collie in the frost — A5 only. Very small edition. Early morning, a field gate, a dog waiting.
• Spaniel series, frames 1–6 — A family's three spaniels, photographed over two years. One framing became five, became six. Available individually or as a set.

Watercolour pet portraits

The pet portrait commissions opened quietly — one painting for a friend, posted on an old account, and then a handful of requests from people who'd seen it. That was about five years ago and the commissions have run steadily since then.

The medium is watercolour on Arches paper, usually cold-pressed. The look is loose and observational rather than hyper-realistic. The goal is something that looks like the animal as you know them, not a photograph rendered in paint. If you want something that looks exactly like a photo, watercolour is not the right tool; if you want something that captures the personality of the animal, that's where this medium works well.

Dogs are the most common commission by some distance. Cats are second. I've also painted horses, a donkey, rabbits, and on one occasion a very handsome guinea pig. Each painting begins with the photographs you send. Clear, well-lit images work best, ideally outdoor shots rather than flash photography indoors. I'll sketch a rough composition and send it to you before committing to the final painting.

Wildlife work

Beyond the domestic, there's a long-running thread of wildlife photography and watercolour that feeds from the same impulse. The swan series is the most substantial of these — an ongoing project along a particular stretch of river that the camera has visited many hundreds of times. Garden birds, foxes, a heron that turns up in the same spot each winter. The occasional longer trip for landscape and wildlife work further afield.

The wildlife photography prints sit in the same archival print range as the dog portraits. Small editions, signed, on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper.

Crochet animals and amigurumi

There's a third strand of animal work that people sometimes overlook: the crocheted animals. The amigurumi figures the studio makes range from simple small animals for children through to more detailed custom commissions. A rabbit in the colour of someone's real rabbit. A donkey for a child who is obsessed with donkeys. They're slow to make and only taken in small numbers, but they find good homes.

See the amigurumi guide for more about the craft itself, and the commissions page if you'd like to enquire about a custom piece.

Commissioning animal artwork

For a watercolour pet portrait, send photographs and a note about your animal to [email protected]. Include the size you have in mind and roughly when you need it. Autumn slots fill earliest.

For a photography print, describe what you're after or link to the image you've seen somewhere, and I'll confirm whether it's in the current print catalogue and what editions remain.

All the context around pricing and process is on the commissions page. The full range of work is in the gallery. Recent finished pieces are listed under projects.