About The Artist
ARTIST STATEMENT
My goal is to illuminate the unique character and essence of my subjects and capture the true spirit of each individual animal that I portray in my work. I believe that the eyes truly are the windows to the soul, which is why up-close-and-personal head and shoulder portraits of my subjects feature prominently in my work.
As I create, an emotional connection develops with both the subject and the artwork – every piece is nurtured from conception to completion and along the way each one is infused with a bit of my heart and soul. I am a purely self taught artist and having avoided the traditional academic approach, my style has developed through experimentation and self determination of what is important to me as artist. While more recently there are many artists whom I admire and who inspire me, I can honestly say that no one artist has influenced my work – my work is influenced by how I see and interpret the natural world around me.
Animals have always been an important part of my life and are a constant pleasure and inspiration. Through my art, I hope to evoke emotions that inspire a deeper appreciation, respect, admiration, compassion and empathy for the precious animals and the beautiful natural world that we are responsible for.
A percentage from the sale of every original artwork is donated to a variety of animal rescue and conservation charities, and I hope to inspire others to support these worthy causes whenever they can.
About me…
I am a self taught artist and have been drawing since I could hold a pencil. I have always been compelled to draw the animals that I love and I guess it was a natural progression to offer my services as an animal artist to those wishing to commission a unique work of art to commemorate their cherished pets. Animals are so important in our lives, and I find it incredibly rewarding to be able to capture their personality and character to create a fitting tribute that will be enjoyed for a lifetime.
I work from my home studio, surrounded by the natural beauty of the Darling Ranges in Western Australia and a multitude of pets and wild animals – I simply couldn’t imagine life without them all!
In my younger days (read before children:) I had my own horses and competed in Pony Club and a few One Day Events, then I spent several years showing my Jack Russell Terriers. I bred two litters under the ‘Terrajac” prefix before deciding that parting with puppies was just too difficult emotionally – unfortunately you just can’t keep them all and there are just too many unwanted dogs in the world already.
Dogs have always held a special place in my heart and feature heavily in my artwork. Since 1996 my husband and I have promoted and encouraged responsible dog ownership, responsible ethical dog breeding and dog rescue organizations through our website Dogsites (www.dogsites.com.au).
About my art…
The artwork that I create is realistic while retaining a definite hand drawn or painted appearance. I do not aim for photo-realism in my work, but what I personally refer to as ‘artistic realism’ – my artistic interpretation of the subject rather than just a duplicate copy of a photograph – which as an avid photographer, I just don’t see the point of doing.
I have done pet portrait commissions for a number of years, and have recently decided to limit the number of commissions that I accept so that I can focus on my own artwork for a while, which among other things includes my wildlife work through which I hope to raise awareness of the need for conservation and protection of our precious wildlife.
I work in a variety of different mediums including graphite, charcoal, artists colour pencils, pastels and more recently acrylics and oils. Oil painting has rapidly become my favourite medium to work with, using glazing techniques adopted from the Old Masters that are hundreds of years old combined with my own techniques developed through my own experimentation (one of the benefits of being self taught!) While oil paintings do take a lot longer than the other medium, especially pastels, I don’t think any other medium comes close to the beauty and luminescent colour of an oil painting.
Thankyou for taking the time to find out a little more about me!
Michelle
