Saga of a dog portrait

Portrait of Izzy, watercolor on Aquabord™

Back in early December one of my barn friends had to put down her now aged, beloved dog, Izzy. She was absolutely crushed, and our barn manager asked me to do a portrait as a surprise for her to give to the owner. If you’ve read my last post, you will have devined that Portugal got quite in the way of that portrait, so I didn’t get started until mid-January.

Finding a suitable photo was also a bit of an obstacle. There were several on the owner’s Facebook page, but none that were either sharp enough or posed well enough to make a good portrait. It’s always somewhat of an iffy research project when you’re trying to locate a good photo without letting the recipient know about it! We finally got a black and white one from her sister, and fortunately the dog also happened to be black and white so color wasn’t an issue. Except for the collar. Back to Facebook to find a color photo with the collar visible!

So I delivered the finished painting yesterday and I already knew about the plot to present the surprise. It worked: Give the recipient a box of tissues. She will ask what’s that for? (she did ask). Wrapped painting is handed over. Recipient unwraps it, bursts into tears, exclaims “it looks just like her” and swipes several tissues from the box. Everyone laughs and hugs. Mission accomplished. Sweet!!