Day #3 in A Dog Day Month

This is a very special and sad painting. It's a painting of my friend Gillian Bryce's Gidget.

I woke up on Friday morning with a painting in mind for day #3 and that lasted until i saw a post from Gillian telling of her pups death. I painted her 3 pups already for her last year and knew she must be really hurting. I started painting dogs and pets for people because of the death of 

my Amber last year.

With Gillian's heart in mind, I change some days around and painted her Gidget as Day #3. What a great little dog and friend she was.

Day # 3 Gidget

She the up to date paintings of this project here- Dog Day2

"Haley" Day 2 in A Dog Day Month2

When I started thinking about starting up this project this year I wanted it to be more than pretty pictures of great dogs, I wanted to paint the spirit of these great beasts.

Haley, is one of those. This brave little pup is a wonderful subject that I was looking for in this project. Since an accident as a pup, Haley has used a walker to get around. 

When I first saw the photo artist friend Flynn Gentry-Taylor I didn't realize what it was Haley had around her. When Flynn told me she had an injury at birth, she is doing water therapy and has her own walker, she lives in Alaska....I had to paint her story. She really deserves that.

Day #2 "Haley" of A Dog Day Month2

Thanks again to Flynn for sending Haley this way for my month long dog painting a day project. You can see the rest of this project at jamesswansonfineart.com

Day 1 of Dog Day Month2

Last years Dog Day Month of July was such a huge success I decided to do it again.

With in a minute of announcing the project I had people signing their pups up. With in 15 minutes I had a gallery wanting the project to exhibit - the ACE Gallery in Fort Collins for the month of October with part of the proceeds going to animal shelters.

Picking the first pup to paint, was a tough one. I have some many sent in to choose from right I was a kid in a candy store.

I picked Cissy because of the eyes and color. I remember last years paintings and Cissy reminded me of a couple of paintings from that project.

Day 1 painting "Cissy" 11x14 oil

Initial sketch on canvas

Blocked in. Cissy is about halfway done.

Thanks to Cissy's owner Roseanne Hart for sending her in!

The paintings of this project are for sale to the pet owners first before they go on public

exhibition at the ACE Gallery.

See the whole month of paintings at James Swanson Fine Art.