Sweet Katey, beginning a memorial portrait

I began this painting of Katey, a lovely little Cavalier who crossed the rainbow bridge, quite a while ago. I was looking over my past work and realized that this turned out to be a favorite painting–but that I never posted about it. Katey was described to me as a “love button”, who was “the most lovable baby, eager to please, a lap dog and always gave lots and lots of kisses.” So clearly she was very special and very much loved.

I began this painting a bit differently than most–instead of doing a rough, overall, fairly evenly worked first paint layer, I ended up starting by concentrating on Katey’s expressive eyes and her soft muzzle and establishing them in detail. I don’t actually know exactly why–it just felt right. (Quite a lot of the painting process works like that). But it does make for a somewhat odd looking stage at the beginning. Feels like those big eyes are coming right out of the canvas and might follow you around.