Chow Dog Pastel Painting and Thoughts on the Painting Process.

"Chow" pastel by Della Burgus. No longer available.

I met this fine fellow at a dog show in Des Moines. Loved his furry "mane," his happy-go-lucky expression and gorgeous color.  I took several photos of him and did two paintings - this one in pastel, another in acrylic.  The people at these shows are usually very friendly and love to talk about their "best friends" - and who could blame them?  What is not to love about a face like this?

Lately my time has been pretty well taken up with commissioned portraits, both human and animal, and though this guy is not one of those, he was purchased by someone who said he looked just like her dog.  That always makes me happy.

I will try to do a better job of keeping up blogs here, but you probably won't be seeing any WIP, (works in progress) especially of the human portraits. While I admire the courage and ability of those who give you step by step demonstrations of their work, I have no plans to offer that myself. On those rare occasions when I have tried, the paintings have fallen apart somewhere after "step 27"  in a most humiliating fashion. Don't get the idea that I am not organized, I certainly am.  I am just not linear. My process seldom, if ever, follows a straight line, but meanders through the forest along a meaningless path until finally I get to the end. Then, hopefully, I stop.  It works for me, and as they say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Have a great week end.