Brighton Vibes Pooch

Portrait of a Cockerpoo, 148mm x 210mm

This portrait presented a unique challenge in terms of the colour palette from the original photo. As you know, I like to copy the exact colours and forms from images given to me, because I know its the small details that can sometimes evoke a memory. However, I’ve always been advised to avoid using a lot of black in painting, particularly because the Impressionists advised this (inspiration). So I felt I was fighting against the urge to use lighter greys for the darkest parts of the image. I probably being hypocritical here because I tend to paint images with a stark difference between light and dark, and this probably stems from my interest in spirituality and my love of artists such as J.M Turner, Goya and Vermeer. Anyway, I think using a mixture of block colour and wash helped me to get away with the black.

I absolutely loved painting that dog lead, that definitely passed the Brighton vibe check! I was nervous to paint it because it is the most striking part of the image, and I didn’t want to mess it up! I think the black actually accentuated the lead nicely.