Aila Whippet Portrait

While painting this portrait of beautiful Aila, I was thinking I am really living the artists' dream. Well my artist's dream anyway! Painting sighthounds everyday. Being commissioned to paint sighthounds and in between these, painting my own ideas... usually involving a galgo, greyhound or whippet. 

This painting of Aila is my idea of the dream portrait. Something that will be a focal point in the home. Something to keep forever. A very typical sighthound pose and showing of such lovely ears.

For such a stunning whippet I decided less is more and wanted to keep the background as minimalist as possible. The reference photograph was very contrasty with heavy shadows and I decided they would be too heavy for the portrait which I wanted to keep light. I allowed the front paw to touch the bottom edge of the canvas to help 'ground' the subject, so she did not seem to be floating, and added just a hint of shadow around her body. That was the time to stop, giving enough time for the painting to dry before making its journey to Germany for a very special event.

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