Project Description

A few times over the course of my art life I’ve found myself painting portraits of people’s pets, often after they’ve passed away. People usually have plenty of photos of their lost furry family members, but I’ve always believed a painting captures something a little beyond a photograph. I like to say that a photo captures a moment in time, but a painting captures a life.

This is Max, the late puppy of my brother-in-law’s family. He was 15 or more years old when they had to say good bye, so my sister asked me if I would try to capture him in a similar way to what I did with Quegan earlier in 2015. She had a larger portrait printed for the parents and two smaller ones for her brother- and sister-in-law. She told me he loved to play in the wrapping paper at Xmas time, and he had a favorite toy, so I tried to incorporate that into his portrait.