Animal Portraits and Landscape   Paintings

by Isabel Clark BA (Hons) Fine Art

About the Artist

I am a self employed artist working from home. My greatest loves are animals (pets and wild creatures), the environment, and painting animals in oils or watercolour, although I also very much enjoy painting, landscapes, flowers, people and buildings. I feel so lucky being able to combine the two great loves in my life - pet dogs, cats, indeed all pets, and wild animals, with my love of painting pet portraits and landscape paintings.

Having many pets of my own I know just how precious they are to us and what a special gift a portrait of a beloved pet is. Even more so when our pet has sadly died. Many of my commissions are memorials to much loved pets and they are a lasting tribute to a lost friend.

I also have many requests for pet portraits as Christmas gifts. If this is the case, please do get your pet portraits orders in well before December. I would hate to have to turn anybody down because it was too late. In fact, if you want the pet portrait for Christmas, send the order in right away.  The important thing is to get that important Christmas or Birthday order in for your Pet Portraits so you are at the front of the queue.

The majority of my commissions for pet portraits come through the mail and from many parts of the world - the USA, Canada, Australia, Continental Europe, Eire, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and my own country, England.

I need at least one CLEAR photograph of the subject you wish me to paint. The clarity of the photo is crucial to the quality of the finished portrait. A 6"x4" photo is quite large enough, so long as the subject is just about filling the frame and is clear and in focus. I need to see the small details of the subject so that the original and unique character of your pet, person or place is retained in the finished portrait.

Although I have painted for as long as I can remember, I obtained a BA (Honours) Degree in Fine Art from The Lanchester Polytechnic (Coventry University) in 1982, and have been working as a professional artist for many years now, painting pet portraits of dogs, cats and all animals.

I care very much about animal welfare, the natural environment and the sympathetic care of my Country's heritage. I love England and feel very passionately about the urgent need to care for the English countryside with it's various wildlife and wildlife habitats. It is only by caring for their habitats that some of our most pressured wild animals, birds and plants have any chance of flourishing. We should all do our best to alleviate some of the harm man has done and try to prevent further harm.

My Home Life

My home is a small house on the outskirts of Coventry, in the Midlands of England, where I share a home with my brother Reg, three rescue dogs (Grip, Tremor and Tarn) one cat, Rosa. Her sister Tansy, sadly died from cancer on 27 January, 2003, and three goldfish in the garden pond called, George (red and white), Georgy Girl (also red and white) and Jack (red, white and blue).

I had a wild mallard duck for many years after she had been swept away from her mother in a violent storm. My son, who was about 13 years old, told the River Warden about the tiny duckling's plight, and was told him that he could have the duckling if he could get her as she would die without her mother. So, of course, what did my son do? Yes, he jumped into the river fully clothed and plucked her out of the water.

During the years we had "Me-Too", she went almost everywhere with us. I am afraid she had no idea she was a duck and cuddled up with the dogs to sleep.

My son Paul is now grown and he lives just around the corner from me, with my two young grandsons, Daniel and Jacob.

Within a few yards of my home are woods and fields and the dogs have great fun romping through the trees and meadows. I have to take the same route each time because one of my dogs is totally blind and Tremor has more confidence if she knows where she is going.

Tremor is 11 years old. She went blind very young and still has lots of energy. You cannot tell she is blind from the way she plays with the other dogs and goes swimming in the pond at every opportunity. She has an abiding passion for swimming and indulges it whenever she can. She does need a careful eye kept on her though, in the water and out, and a warning "MIND!" shouted if she is racing towards a tree, or a quick call if she has lost her bearings. When I have to shout "MIND!" to her, she skids to a stop immediately and then feels her way slowly until I shout the all clear signal which is "OK THEN!" Then she is off on her mad chases again.

Mitzi, my 17 years old terrier, sadly died on 28th February 2002, sadly followed 12 weeks later, on 31st May by Percy, our 17 years old mongrel.  On 3 March 2003, our lovely, 16 years old Border Terrier Quake also sadly died.

Wild flowers, such as foxgloves, bluebells, primroses, meadow cowslips, ladies smock, buttercups, and violets, grow in abundance and the area is home to Foxes, Voles, Field mice, Moles, Muntjac deer, owls, lapwings, pheasants, woodcocks, kestrels, Peregrine Falcons, Bluetits, Longtailed Tits, Bullfinches. There is also a wonderful variety of butterflies, assorted dragonflies and so many other birds and animals I couldn't possibly mention them all.

The nearby pond is also home to more animals, mallard ducks, moorhens, frogs, toads, great crested newts, smooth newts, stickle-back fish, minnows, water boatmen and a myriad assorted other water creatures and insects, some of which are quite rare.

One of my greatest pleasures is wandering through the meadows with my dogs, sketchbook in hand, watching the English spring scenery pass on into summer and autumn and then watch the autumn leaves fall before the first snows of winter. Nobody has to be rich to enjoy these pleasures but how poor are those who can find no pleasure in them.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for further details or samples of my work, or if you have any query or just want a chat.

If  you want a really unusual and special gift for a pet or animal lover for Christmas, Birthdays, Thanksgiving, Easter, Anniversaries, Retirements, Presentations or any other celebration, a portrait of a beloved pet is always a unique and very welcome gift. Whether it is a dog painting, cat painting, horse painting, wild animal painting, bird painting, child or adult human painting or a painting of someone's home and garden, it will bring delight and surprise to the recipient.

My England