Animals in Art and Onto Pet Portraits

Since the beginning of mankind, humans have been depicting animals in art. Thousands and thousands of years ago man began marking the surfaces in the caves in which they lived with their conceptualization of their surroundings, their lives as they lived it, what they hunted, made, ate. Throughout history, the human race has been tied to the resources of other species to provide for them, in the way of food, clothing, tools. As humans have developed, animals have become the subject of folklore, myths, symbols, emblems or totems as a means to create stories, give lessons and values.  We include them into our artwork, as it can create greater depth to a piece of art by creating a story of different meaning and storytelling then if the animal, like a cat or dog had not been a part of the painting. 

For myself as an artist and the beginning of my love for art; it was also my love of animals that came colliding together in my early years as a child drawing goats, big horn sheep, cats, dogs, horses. My first drawing book my parents got me for Christmas became filled with all sorts of subjects but mostly animals. The Ram I drew from a National Geographic magazine. National Geographic became my source for reference in drawing animals or one time going to my grandparents’ farm in Iowa, the horse next door became one of my first real paintings. Animals have always shown to me the vastness of our earth and who we share it with, they represent almost a spiritual connection.  Artists are familiar with the state of awareness of the feeling of losing all track of time in what they are doing. When this happens it is such a connection with the medium you are using and creating that you lose yourself in it, a spiritual connection one can only find in the present moment. When I paint animals or even landscapes I lose myself into this world of self-consciousness and feeling one with nature by admiring it and showing it through art. 

In my journey of art with animals, it eventually evolved into landscapes, seascapes with birds sitting on the shore. My desire to be with nature where it’s quiet and you can sit and admire the beauty before you. Once in a while someone would ask me to do a portrait, a portrait….of what, your dog? No, a person, a human being. I did a self-portrait in art school as an assignment, which I got through but it was utterly painful and I didn’t know why until many years later, because it’s just me. I don’t like people enough to want to capture them in art. Animals have a more innocence of them, no agenda, just curiosity and the innocent, happy glint in their eyes. Years later and into my 60’s, I’m still doing animals and landscapes but I’ve now moved into pet portraits. It started with my son and daughter-in-law’s dog Marshall, a beautiful light colored, playful Golden Retriever that I wanted to give them as a house warming gift, a portrait of their beloved dog. Once I painted Marshall I became totally hooked but also realized I had been painting animal portraits already by painting farm animals, but I’ve kind of side stepped into domestic animals now. The wild ones will still keep coming and be painted, but now I’ll be including man’s best friend or man’s best cat.  Check out my pet portrait page. Thanks for reading!