I like painting dogs almost as much as I like painting horses. This is a portrait of a black lab named "Sadie". She's such a lively, well behaved dog. I hope some of that comes through in this painting I'm doing of her. I got started on it last night about 10 pm. My favorite part of painting is creating what I call, a map, of the image. I slosh paint on the canvas and pick out the image. After you get to this point, the real work begins. I try to find each and every detail that makes this dog look different from every other black lab in the world. I want Sadie's owner to be able to say, "That's Sadie!" when I finish this painting.

The thing I hate worst about portrait painting, is when people see the painting of their pet and burst into tears. That's usually because they had me do the painting after their pet had died. When this happens, I'm extremely glad I captured the image they were hoping for, but I've lost so many pets myself, I share their pain.

Perhaps that is what this business of being an artist is about, sharing our feelings and our "humaness". Donna