Old Hopeful, portrait of a dog, begging for treats.

Here's to high hopes! Look at this guy. His cheek is full of treats he's gathered, and he's hoping to get at least one more!  

I don't always use my own reference photos, this was painted using a photo that Karen Broemmelsick took with her camera. Using her photo, I kind of exaggerated the size of the ears, and the size of the muzzle to create this dog.

Her photo was wonderful, the expression in the dog's eyes was worth a million bucks! Thank you Karen for making your photo available in the photos for artists group on Facebook.

Sincerely,

Donna Ridgway

Corki is going to Wine and Whiskers!

http://www.rimrockhumanesociety.org/

I was contacted the other day by the Rimrock Humane Society and asked if I could donate a piece of art to their upcoming event, "Wine and Whiskers".  Rochelle was so nice, I couldn't tell her no, so I sat down at my desk and painted "Corki".

Corki was a real dog, who belonged to my cousin. She was a ranch dog, rode the four wheeler, went fencing, rode in the pickup, did all the things ranch dogs do!  She was so happy about her life with my cousin, she was a joy to know.

She's crossed over the Rainbow Bridge, but this painting in her honor, helps to keep her memory alive. :)

If you go to Wine and Whiskers be sure to place your bid on Corki!

Sincerely,
Donna Ridgway

Buster a dog art painting!

Buster

I'm doing chores for my neighbor while she helps her family harvest their grain.  I've been doing her chores for the last two weeks.  I love her animals.  She spends so much time with them, that they seem human most of the time!  This is one of her dogs.  I had so much fun painting him like this!

This painting is 6X6 inches in size, and done with acrylic paints.

On another subject, it's fire season in Montana.  A large fire has blown up in bug kill areas in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.  You can bet that fire will be burning way into fall unless it rains real hard!   This fire is in a remote area where fire wouldn't be fought anyway, but most of the fires could be put out when they are small and the trees saved.  It breaks my heart the fires are allowed to burn.  The timber is completely wasted.  That is timber that could become homes for many people.  Logging has come a long way since timber was clear cut, and logging could save and rejuvenate our forests, all the time giving people jobs.

Think of all the small animals that are killed in fires...any one who's young, or old, or trapped, will burn a horrible death.  I don't like forest fires....

Donna Ridgway

Polebridge, Mt Sled Dog

It's been just a year ago, since we went to the sled dog races at Polebridge, Mt. I photographed the dogs, and some of them were so beautiful. This is one I especially liked. It's possible he ran the Ididarod!

Prints of this image are $30 and that includes shipping. Contact me on the email link below if you wish to purchase a print.
Donna
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Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.
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A dog painting.

I was on a roll today, so I kept on painting. I kind of liked this little guy when I finished him. We saw him in a pickup in Choteau, and I asked his owner if I could photograph her dog. She was tickled I'd asked her and said, "Sure!" Wish she could see this and tell me if it looks like her dog, but I have no idea who she was! I guess I should remember to ask next time.
donna
Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.
My Ebay

Black and white dog, 2

I've been building and layering colors. I like to glaze acrylics over each other to build depth and texture on a painting . My scanner doesn't scan these with anything like the bright colors they really have.

There's more dog art on my website.
Don't forget to sign up to have these paintings whisked to your inbox!
donna

Black and white dog.

I'm working on another Framed painting. This one of a dog. We found this little guy in either Tracy, Mt or Stockton, I'm not sure which. He was sitting along the road giving us the funniest look. I suppose he wondered why we were taking pictures of him!

You can find more dog art on my website. If you'd like to purchase any painting you see on this blog, email me at montanahorsegallery@earthlink.net. Don't forget to sign up to have these paintings whisked to your email box!

Thanks for stopping by and come again!

Cocker spaniel, dog portrait. Oil painting.

This dog reminds me of a dog I had once called Ceasar. Ceasar came to me when my mom and dad bought a new house. The people who sold them the house, had this dog they wanted to give away. Knowing I'm always a sucker for an animal, my folks took the dog and gave him to me.

Ceasar was a spoiled rotten little mutt who hated kids. My son was about 5 years old then and the dog hated him, hated me, hated living on a dairy.... Luckily, my mom had a friend who was longing for little soft doggie to spoil rotten. She inherited Ceasar! Was he ever happy! He was once again living the life he loved. Pampered, fed treats, a special place to live on the couch! What a happy ending.

Ceasar looked exactly like this dog, who I found in the Wet Canvas reference library.

As always, the paintings you see here are for sale. 8X10 study for $50. Inquire at montanahorsegallery@earthlink.net or see my ebay link to your right.

Thanks for stopping by to see my paintings! :)
Donna

Updated Dog painting.

I've worked on this portrait a little more. Added some warmer color to the eyebrow area to bring out the eyes. It seemed to add a twinkle to them. Made the whites a little whiter. This is a kind of study portrait.
Donna

Loneliest Lonesome, WIP 2, Dog painting.

I'm now using a lot of turpentine on my brush and drawing in the details of the dog into the thin layer of paint that was on the canvas. This painting is 16X20 so it's fairly large. You can see it isn't quite square to the picture plane as it tips back on my easel where I took these pictures.

My new studio has nice large windows so I can take photos of large paintings inside. I used to have to take them out. It's blizzarding, really cold, and snowing today so I wouldn't be able to take photos of paintings outside.... It's nice to have the studio!

Each stage of the painting becomes more like a real dog. At least I hope it does! :) I don't like drawing with a pencil as good as I like drawing with a paint brush so I draw the image right on the painting.
Donna

The Loneliest Lonesome. Canine art. Dog

I'm showing another painting as a work in progress. I got up at 5 am and went to my new studio to paint. The wood stove had the studio all warmed up as the fire lasted all night long. It was so nice!

A while back, we went toward Cut Bank, Montana on a photo shoot, and drove through Shelby on our way home. As we were cruising around the outskirts of town, looking for photos that I could turn into paintings, we saw this dog tied to the side of a trailer house. He was howling with lonesomeness and it broke my heart.

Of course I had to paint him. You see so many dogs tied to a spot where they're left in loneliness, until the dirt is beat smooth around them. They have no dog house for cold weather, no human comfort and sometimes I wonder how much they get fed. I can't bear to see this but I thought if I painted it, it might help people to remember their pets.

Another reason for painting this right now. We're inundated with stray cats. In our neighborhood, when people don't want to feed their animals, they turn them out to fend for themselves. We've had cats coming into our house at night through the cat door to eat. If they'd eat and leave, I wouldn't care so much, but some of them came in, marked the house with spray, then left. It was a nightmare to clean up and expensive too.

So now our cat door is locked and I'm feeding the strays outside. By spring, we'll have a dozen cats I'm feeding, I suppose. I guess we'll take them to the pound as our own two cats are all we want. I feel so sorry for them, I can't stand watching them as they search for food.

Anyway, this is the first bunch of paint on the canvas for this painting. I throw some paint on there and move it around with lots of turpentine until I have the shape of the animal I'm painting.
Donna