Michelle Wrighton Fine Art and Photography

I can’t help myself, I take thousands of photographs of everything around me, both for reference material for my artwork and because my camera is just another medium to create art.  I don’t always have time to go through all my photos and select my favorites to display, but the other day I realized that my photography galleries were very outdated and thought I had better add some new ones.  This is just a few of the new additions, the rest rest can be seen in the Landscape and Animal& Wildlife Photography Galleries.  These photos were all taken within a short distance of my home, except the Tawny Frogmouth which was found a little further south.  Enjoy!

Harvest Landscape © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography

Sunset Silhouette © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography

Long Shadows © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography

Dark Sky © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography

Up Close and Personal - Tawny Frogmouth © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography

Well my dear hubby has been busy while I have been under the weather and the project that I mentioned in my last post is now up and running, and I am looking for new dog rescue groups to partner with in the near future (never enough hours in the day and the kids are on holidays at the moment).

The new project is  an ongoing series of Dog Paintings in various styles and media and can be viewed at http://dogpaintings.com.au, which I hope in time will be a daily dog painting blog – time constraints and commissions before Christmas (added to me not being 100% well) means that it is unlikely (LOL ok highly improbable) that I will paint daily, so I am aiming at finishing one of these small paintings every day that I do paint.  A percentage of the sale of these small artworks will be donated to dog rescue groups, at the moment this includes the Animal Protection Society and K9 Rescue.

After the flooding and house re-arranging that resulted in a studio clean out, I have gone through my art folders and have listed some artwork from my personal collection that has not been offered for sale previously.  You can see all of the artwork currently available in the Dog Paintings ART FOR SALE.

I’ve also entered three of my dog portraits in the Canine Art Guild’s Helping Paws online Exhibition which featrues an international collection of artists who have partnered with local animal shelters and rescues and have pledged a percentage of sales from this exhibition to support of animal welfare efforts.

In addition, visitors to the online exhibition can vote for their favorite artwork and three People’s Choice honours will be awarded, with cash donations being made to the shelters affiliated with the artworks receiving the most votes for People’s Choice awards so please visit the “Helping Paws” Exhibition and vote for your favourite.

These are the three pieces that I have entered into the exhibition:

“Peaches & Cream”, Pomeranean in Pastels

"Peaches & Cream" Pomeranian in pastels by Michelle Wrighton

“Angel in Blue” American Staffordshire Bull Terrier painting in oils

"Angel in Blue" American Staffordshire Terrier in Oils

“Noble” German Shepherd Dog, painting in charcoal

"Noble" German Shepherd Dog in charcoal by Michelle Wrighton

All three of these dog paintings are available for sale with 10% being donated to the Animal Protection Society and K9 Rescue.  If you like any of these three paintings, I would appreciate you vote in the Peoples Choice awards to help my selected Rescue Groups!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Michelle

I nearly forgot to post an update with the final of my lion, so here he is, Part II of “We Three Kings”, 8″x8″, artist colour pencil on drafting film.

I’m not surprised that more and more colour pencil artists are starting to use drafting film for their work. I am now absolutely convinced that drafting film is the perfect support for use with colour pencils, at least with my style and technique. It is definitely not easy to use initially, and it handles totally different to any other support that I have worked with (it dosn’t take as many layers so you really have to make each mark count!), but the results as definitely worth it, so I will be doing a lot more work on film in the future!

Please click the image below to view and purchase Greeting Cards and a range of Fine Art Prints featuring this artwork.

Cards and prints featuring this artwork can be purchased at

Yes, I know this post is out of order:) better late than never, right?

This is the first in my big cat triptych, “We Three Kings”, and my first experiment with using colour pencils on drafting film. I started with a much more detailed sketch than I normally do because I my focus was on learning how to use this support (it handles very differently to any other support that I have tried).

I did find that not all drafting films are created equal:( Although the type I used for this tiger was excellent for the pigment saturation and luminosity it allowed, unlike other types of drafting film, although it erased easily, I could not get much pigment back into the erased areas….making erasing mistakes impossible!

Considering this was an experiment, I am very pleased with how he turned out. Oh and if you are wondering about the title – I didn’t actually start out planning to do a Big Cat triptych, but the night I finished this one I was laying in bed when the title popped into my head (actually, titles for my artwork rarely pop gently into my head, they usually hit me like a sledgehammer;). I knew instantly that the next one in the series would be the lion, but I am still not sure who will be the third king cat. Watch this space to find out!

Work In Progress shot 1:

Work In Progress shot 2:

Work In Progress shot 3:

Final: “We Three Kings part I: Tiger”

I’d love to know what you think of him!

Cards and prints featuring this artwork can be purchased at