This gal is the third cow portrait in the new bovine series, and quite the whopper at just short of five by six feet. That makes her my largest animal portrait to date.

Untitled (Cow #3) | ©Aimée Rolin Hoover | 2013 | 68in x 60in | Acrylic on canvas

Cow #3 close-up

Big and blank

Studio shot of Cow #3

Lucky me.

Thanks as always for reading.

Cow #2 | ©Aimée Rolin Hoover | 2013 | 58” x 60” | Acrylic on canvas

Studio shot of Cow #2

My affection for bovines is only growing with this work, much as it did with canines during the last 13 years, so there are definitely more cows to come.

Though I’m going to need a bigger studio if I keep this up.

Until then thanks, as always, for reading.

What's 'dis?

Moe making sure Jeni is careful with that blade

Almost there...

Merry Christmas!

It's you, Moe!

Jeni, Moe, and larger than life Moe

“Aimée – Thank you SO much for your generosity! Moe is our first dog and he means so much to us. You did such an amazingly beautiful painting and we will love and cherish it forever!” — Jeni

(You can also see Moe’s final portrait in the Dog & Cat Gallery)

I was honored to have such a great looking pooch for my very last custom pet portrait (more on this in the next post). A big thank you goes out to Jeni for submitting such a beautiful photo for me to paint.

Happy new year everyone, and thanks, as always, for reading.

Zee winner!

And the winner is…Mo!!

Congratulations Jeni Crowder—you are the winner of an $5000 original custom portrait of your awesome dog, Mo! I can’t wait to paint Mo’s portrait, he’s going to make a stunning subject. I’ll get to work on him right after Thanksgiving and will be filming as I go, so everyone can see his step by step portrait progression. And Jeni will have the finished portrait in her hands before Christmas. (Jeni – email me and I’ll fill you in on the details!)

But before I get to work, I want to thank each and every one of you who took the time to enter your pet in my contest. Please know that if I had the time (and was independently wealthy) I’d paint ALL your animals for free. Over 230 of you entered your beloved pets, almost a 200% increase from last time. That’s a far cry from the first contest I held back in 2009, which had exactly one entry (yep, he won).

And because all animals were welcomed this time around (reflecting my new painting direction), we had a quite the mix of critters this year. Entries included, but were not limited to, a Lesser Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, a Sugar Glider, a Nanday Conure Parrot, and a African Soft-furred Rat. Plus we had some beautiful felines, horses, and goats. And even a dog breed I have never actually heard of (it’s rare to stump me in this department) called an Native American Indian Dog. It warrants sharing his striking photo here if you didn’t see it on Facebook…

Liam, a Native American Indian Dog, submitted by Cassandra Rentz

I can’t tell you how fun it was to wake up, and—bedhead be damned—hop on Facebook to see the new batch of entries each morning. What I didn’t expect, however, was the massive support fellow entererees (not a word) had for each other, “liking” each others competing photos and watching everyone connect through a deep love of our fellow furry family members. It was like the contest came along with a friendly, unintended social science experiment.

I don’t have to tell you that the competition was Fierce, capital F, and task of choosing just one was incredibly tough. However, you may be wondering why I ended up choosing Mo. As I mentioned in the official entry rules, my intention was to chose the photo I was most inspired to paint. I also suggested reading my photo tips blog post to increase your chances of winning. Well, Mo’s photo certainly had a few of those tips down cold: it was well lit, taken at an really interesting angle, and was close-up and clear-focused. Now, for those of you who are thinking (and I know you are), “Well…Dangit [or your favorite profanity]! My pet’s photo had all those qualities too!” You are probably right. That’s what made this decision so difficult: there we so many amazing entries. I just felt a slightly louder, internal “Yes” when I looked at his photo. This inspiration thing is a slippery sucker, verbally speaking, so that’s the best I’ve got!

If you’ve entered my contests before, you know we’re not finished until we announce some honorable mention! So without further adieu, I present the following awards…

“Best Pre-Seasonal Garb” Award:

Molly, submitted by Frances Bull

“Most Extreme Ear-to-Head-Size Ratio” Award:

Award shared by Remington, submitted by Lisa Pomerance, and Lexi, Submitted by Angela Kopy

“Best Muppet Impersonation” Award:

Kieran submitted by Maylene Villamora

“Best Furry Fowl Bum Photo Bomb” Award:

Biff (and friend) submitted by Michelle Miller

“Team Underbite—Unite!” Award:

Award shared by (clockwise from top left) Pearl, Marilyn, Daisy and Maya

The “Are You SURE She’s Not a Stuffed Animal?” Award:

Cleo submitted by Andrea Ament

And finally…The “Oh please, I’m Already Fabulous!” Award:

Stuart, submitted by Patty Learned

Again, thank you so much for entering the contest and for following my work. Along with Mo, there are some more bovine portraits up next in the studio. So stay tuned for a bunch of new work. It will all be up soon right here on the blog and if you follow me on Facebook, you’ll be the first to know.

And Jeni – start thinking about your “pay-it-forward” idea. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Best to you and all of your critters, and thanks as always for reading!

The past 10 free custom portrait winners...maybe you're next!

Ten Schmem…Here Comes Giveaway Eleven!
I thought I was finished at 10 free portrait giveaways, which I started back in 2009 when I began my “twitter portraits,” (best explained by Bark Magazine’s JoAnna Lou), but frankly they are just fun to do. Plus a gal can change her mind.

So as a big thank you to my awesome Facebook followers, I wanted to have a little fun and do one more FREE CUSTOM PORTRAIT GIVEAWAY for the holidays! And this one is finally open to ALL animals!

—The winner’s portrait will be valued at $4500-5000—

August 2009's winner Mitzi with Maddie and Maddie's portrait

The contest starts…NOW! Here are the entry rules:

OFFICIAL ENTRY RULES

The contest begins now, aka: noon (PST) on Tuesday, November 13th, 2012.

You’ll have until midnight (PST) on Sunday, November 18th to enter your pet’s photo (again please include his/her name in your post).

The winner will be announced Wednesday, November 21st at noon (PST) on my Facebook fan page wall.

This is for my Facebook fans only. So yes, you have to “Like” my page. (That’s how I get ya!) But I post cute animal pics in addition to my artwork, so I promise you’ll enjoy wasting many perfectly good hours looking at my posts.

Please make sure to post your entry on my Facebook fan page (Pet Portraits by Aimée) and not my personal page. Photo posted on my personal page won’t be officially entered.

Only ONE entry photo per household. Can you be super sneaky and enter a single photo with multiple pets in it? Of course you can. But it may behoove you to know that every winning entry photo has had only had one animal in it (see 10 past winners above). And it’s been a fairly close-up portrait shot. Just sayin’.

This one’s important. By entering this contest you agree to “pay the freebie forward” should you win. You have do something nice for someone or something else. Donate time to local animal shelter, rake someone else’s leaves, bake your socially awkward neighbor a cake, etc. It can be big or small—be creative! But you have to tell me about, document it with a photo, and email me that photo within 30 days of receiving your portrait. I’ll be posting your pay-it-forward photo on my FB page so everyone can see how awesome you are. Trust me, it will be fun.

September 2009 winners, (the one and only) Mr. Kingsley and Shanni

How You Can Win This Thing
It will greatly increase your chances of winning if you read my portrait photo tips. But just ignore the line about not using “blurry cell phone photos.” That was written a while ago and you probably have an iPhone by now, which take great pictures. Aside from that, the tips should help you snap some pretty good shots.

“Inspiration” was the name of the game for me as an artist this year (which is why I paintied the Goat, Piglet and Cow), so the photo that will win will be the photo that most inspires me to paint it.

This is where I apologize for not being able to verbally describe what that means, exactly. It’s one of those “I’ll-know-it-when-I-see-it” type of things. Like that holiday dress you’re looking for right now.

But the good news here is that everyone has an equal shot since none of you know what will win. It evens the playing field, especially when hot shot photographers enter the contest (you know who you are). Of course if you look at the 10 portraits at the top of this post, you might be able to get a feel for what types of photo I tend to be drawn to.

May 2009's winner Julie with Cali and her portrait

Thanks so much for following me on Facebook, and for entering the contest.

Best of luck!

I suspended my commissioned dog portrait work at the beginning of 2012 in order to free up some time to explore a new painting series, as well as work directly with interior designers by providing custom artwork for their animal loving clients. I’m excited to be adding even more animals to the gallery in 2013, so stay tuned, and best to you and your pets!

Cow | 2012 Farm Animal Series | Acrylic on canvas | 56” x 42”

‘Cow” is the first bovine portrait in my new Farm Animal series. I had wanted to paint a cow for years while I was doing mostly commissioned dog portraits, so I was excited to finally have the chance this year. But not before an obsessive-compulsive stretch of research.

Like the lunatic I am, I sorted through about 42,000 cow photos (no joke—I counted) before I found the perfect pic. It was taken by the talented photographer and Photoshop guru, Heico Neumeyer. He is yet another prolific photographer I’ve had the pleasure of “meeting” via flickr.com and was nice enough to grant me permission to use his image after we worked out a mutually beneficial trade. Heico has such a bevy of beautiful bovine pics that I’m considering doing a whole series directly from his work. So there are more cows a comin’!

But digress, here’s a studio shot of Cow #1 to give you an idea of the painting’s scale…

Cow up on the studio wall

A Little Secret
I actually painted the Cow on the backside of another canvas, which is why it’s hanging on the wall rather than propped up on my easel. What’s on the other side, you ask? Well, it’s eventual owner will get to find that out.


Why Black and White?
While I love painting with color, I am very drawn to the bold, graphic qualities of black and white photography and graphite drawings. There is something that happens when an artist works in black and white, or greyscale: we have to step it up in the composition, light, shadow, and brushwork departments if we are going to hold your attention. I can’t rely on turquoise blue or bright orange to catch your eye (not that I do this as a practice, but you know what I mean) so it becomes much more of a challenge for me to paint something that is bold and interesting, sans color. I tend to like pushing myself occasionally, artistically speaking, so that’s why this particular bovine is black and white.

Here’s a video of the painting as it developed (minus a few stages)…





Until the next painting…thanks, as always for reading.







“Cow” is available for purchase. Please email me for pricing.

Piglet | 2012 | Acrylic on canvas | 58in x 54in

Official Cheesy Artist Photo (OCAP)

If you’d like to be the first to see the next painting, you can subscribe to this blog, follow me on Facebook, twitter, etc.–just check out the links on the top (right) of this page.

And always, thanks for reading…

Cheers,

Juliet | Feb 2012 | 24in x 24in | Acrylic on canvas

Juliet, close-up.

My incredible client and friend, Susan Hyatt (she’s a Master Certified Life Coach. Go hire her as soon as you finish reading this) had Juliet’s portrait painted as a Christmas gift for her daughter, Emily. Due to both our cray-cray (non-word stolen from Susan) schedules, it turns out Juliet was more of a Leap Year gift. So happy Leap Day, Emily!

In the Round
Susan was nice enough to give me carte blanche on Juliet’s portrait, as far as the size and format was concerned. Which is just how we artists like it. I’d been wanting to try a circular canvas for a while and Juliet’s soft little muzzle seemed to be the perfect subject for the “Inaugural Round.” And the circular canvas bonus? If she tilts Juliet’s head down when she hangs the portrait, so that her body is almost horizontal, it looks like she’s zipping through the sea! See?

Whoooosh!

Another fun fact? Scroll up to the first image. Those are my socks securing the painting top and bottom. I promise they were clean.

A note on what’s next
If you’ve read my last blog post then you know I’m taking a bit of a hiatus this year on custom pet portraits in order to work on some personal projects. I also mentioned in that post, almost in the same breath, that I still may take on a custom pet portrait here or there. Even I found that dichotomy a little confusing after reading it so my next post will attempt to explain all that a bit better.

Until then, thanks for reading, thank you Susan, and happy Leap Day!

Goat | 44in x 46in | Feb 2012 | Acrylic on canvas

But switching gears requires some new inspiration. Gorgeous photos inspire me, so I started poking around on photo blogs, getty images, flickr, etc. Specifically, I was looking for a Takin but I ended up stumbling across this stunning photo of a goat, taken by award-wining Austrian photographer, Markus Renner:

Markus' fabulous goat photo

I immediately wanted to paint it. (Poof! Desire + impatience = Inspiration.) And after receiving an email from a complete stranger from an entirely different country, Markus generously granted me permission to paint from it. I love the internet.

I’m incredibly excited to continue experimenting with bolder work like Goat, and an idea for a larger series of paintings seems to be percolating. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, here’s how Goat developed (you can also see a larger version of Goat on the home page):

A Note on 1999-2011
It would be difficult to overstate how lucky I have been to have had such incredible pet portrait clients. Because of their trust in me, I was able to do what I loved for over a decade–and pay the bills at the same time. What a thought. They are the sole reason I’ve been able to hone my pup painting skills over the years, which in turn help me paint Goat. Some clients have even become friends. Friends who check in to see what’s new. Friends I grab coffee with when they’re in town. Friends who send me fantastically inappropriate photo emails (you know who you are). And I actually know people all over the world now–which is pretty cool for a gal that hangs out in her home studio solo for most of the day.

There are a few more cute dogs in my future as I wrap up some commissions from 2011. And I may take on a custom pet portrait here and there this year if the photo speaks to me like Markus’ did (Markus, do you have a dog?!). But for now, and moving forward, I think I hear a big fluffy Highland Cow calling my name…

Goat is lonely.

Thanks for reading!