Commissioned Portrait: Betts

I wanted to get at least one more autumn-themed portrait in here before all the leaves are gone, so here is Betts, a friendly German short-haired pointer whose portrait I’d painted in 1999.

Betts’s person just wanted a nice smallish portrait of her best buddy. Several of her friends had commissioned me to do portraits of their dogs and cats and though Betts was fairly young she wanted to be sure to record her at that age. For all the photos she had of Betts being the best dog in the world, though, none of them were ones she wanted to use when she looked them over. She said she’d try to take some more, and I told her that I could take a few for an extra fee, and then she could have copies of those when we were done as well as the portrait.

So she stopped over with Betts, who was very excited about her modeling debut as German short-haired pointers tend to be. Getting her to stop wiggling after a car ride was the first order of business, but after some treats and play and belly rubs…

Betts was ready for her glamor shots. We actually took surprisingly few photos for such a happy dog, though remember that these were on film and I would have no idea if they were clear or even appropriate until I got the prints back; often, for portraits where I’d taken all the reference photos, I used one-day or even one-hour developing so we didn’t have to come back to it a few weeks later.

First, the pose we wanted. This was the angle and pose in which she chose to sit, because it was the one in which she sat still enough to get a clear photo. That’s a clear indication to me that this is what she wanted—and while you take a look at this photo, also note that I even used the leaves around her, just because I liked them.

And then Betts was ready for her closeup…with her human keeping a good grip on her collar.

And here’s a closeup of her face in the portrait, though I wish I’d taken a better photo of it.

Her person decided she wanted an autumn scene in the background, so I used some photos I’d taken of Star and Pepe’s back yard for their portrait, below, but that will be another story once I find the reference photos for those two.

Again, I wish I’d taken better photos of the artwork, though as 4″ x 6″ prints they look great. I’m glad I’m able to get back to some of the people who commissioned me to paint these and rephotograph them. Someday I hope to catch up with Betts’s human and see what she’s up to.

For a couple of other autumn portraits see also “Sophie and Ellie, Being Very Good” and Cassie and Tyler, Rescued Rescue Dogs.

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Commissioned Cat Portraits

Commissioned Dog Portraits

Portraits of My Cats

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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.

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