As I wrapped up this last series, I really thought about how amazing it was to get so many people involved in this series and just how popular the paintings became. I have always been an animal lover, but I really never thought this would become something I truly enjoyed!
Each painting has its own personality. Although they are all unified together by the style of painting, the medium, and the similar brushwork, they also tell their own story. As I carefully choose specific images of pets to use, my goal was to find ones that showed this unique expression or pose of that pet. I would ask some of the people who generously let me use their pet for more images so I would really be able to express those emotions I thought were important.
My initial idea was to bring these animals together to show a family. I think I was truly able to do that not only with enlarging my size for some of them, but also by arrangement of the animals. As it did take a little time for me to finalize my set up, I concluded it with slight variation. This was to break apart some of the pets and put them next to ones you wouldn’t really think of being together. I did, however, leave the cats all together. This was more of a personal idea as I really enjoyed these small canvases all together right in the center.
The process for the last series was very similar to that of the first two. I again included both small and large canvases which I ended up really enjoying in the final presentation. I also continued with acrylic paint. I was able to go a lot faster even with the large canvases as I continued to try and just layer paint down and use larger brushes. I also became more adapted to this abstract background. At first I was weary on the idea as I thought it wouldn’t look as pleasing compared to the highly detailed pets. In the end I felt more connected to the main focus of the paintings (the pets) because of this more abstract, surreal background. I find it added an interest to the series, while also bringing the viewers eyes on what I want to be the most important.
