Painters amaze me. To stare at a blank canvas and fill it stroke by stroke is an exercise I can’t imagine undertaking. My camera fires off frames easily and quickly. My printer reproduces those frames without incident in minutes. To me, a canvas intimidates with its vast emptiness.

My admiration for painters pushed me to set the goal of filling my home with work created by some of the most talented in the animal art world. I did not exclude photographs in the mix, there are a few on the walls for good balance.

Here is a sampling:

This is Lazza, my darling longhaired Dachshund. The only black and white painting in the group, it was painted by portrait artist, Aimee Hoover. Aimee creates her work from photographs. Several of my clients have had their dogs painted from images I have taken of their dog. You can view a video of her creating a painting on her website. Amazing.

Here is Benny, currently my only dog. Benny was painted by Heather LaHaise. I love her style. Take a look at some of the paintings on her website: www.heatherlahaise.com. You won’t be disappointed!

There she is! My sweet girl Lily… This painting was created by the talented Suzanne Schirra. Her work is bright and lively. This graces our living room wall and is quite large. I think it is 4′x4′. You can see it through the large front window when you drive by the house so I feel like I am sharing it with my town. Suzanne has painted a few dogs from photographs I have created. I am always impressed with the results.

This is a painting of me doing what I do best, crawling around on the floor with dogs and a camera. I love what artist Mark Ulriksen captured when he came to the studio during a shoot for The Bark Magazine one day. I was working with a three legged dog for a cover session. The owner was standing over pulling a classic stage mom pose and Mark included it in the painting. Perfect. His work is widely published. He does consistently excellent covers for the New Yorker Magazine. He also included Lily, my first Dachshund on the wall. Which brings me to my next piece in my home…

The photograph in Mark’s painting is one I created of Lily when she was just turning into an adult dog. I love this image of her the most out of all the hundreds I have taken. It captures her beauty and her wise-beyond-her-years ways. How I miss my girl!

Back to paintings…

This crow was created by Dean Crouser. It is a print, not an original. But I was drawn to the style and the color. He is the only painter I have on the walls that does not specialize in dogs. He lives in Oregon.

This triptec was created by Anne Watkins, a watercolor painter. Her work is truly sublime. She uses just a few strokes to capture a whole bunch of emotion. Take a look at her website. It is not just dogs but children, weddings, street scenes. A truly inspiring artist.

Here is another by artist Aimee Hoover. This is a boxer puppy I photographed in 2006. Here is the original image:

What I love about Aimee is that she can add a depth to the painting to the point where you can almost feel the fur. I painted the wall in my office turquoise blue to go with this painting.

And finally, my good pal, Lisa Cueman. Lisa lives in Vermont and interned at my studio for a year and a half. She has been photographing horses for a while now and has built a strong business of her own. Her work is exhibited and collected around the country. I am fortunate to have a lovely piece of hers that shows of her incredibly minimalist style. It is not the rolling hills of Vermont you are looking at but the gorgeous profile of a horse with snow collecting on its back. Love this so much it sits on the wall of my home office. Treat yourself and take a look through her website. Sorry for the glare on the glass!

That’s the artwork my family and I get to enjoy on a daily basis, I hope you enjoyed it too!

I will end this post with my butterfly mobile…