"The Boys" are completed except for final varnish and framing, ready to go home for the holidays.  I've got to say that canine portraiture makes me smile more than anything else.  Hope it does the same for you!

While waiting for the puppies to dry so I could put on last touches, I started this painting last week.  That is to say, I physically started it last week- I'd been thinking about it for quite some time.  The first "in" sight of it came as I renovated my bathroom, and began the restoration of the claw foot, painting it robin's egg blue on the outside, and thinking about how sitting in it would be like being a hatchling.   Just the right model happened along in September, while I was in the middle of so many things that I almost didn't take the opportunity to set up a reference photo session- am I glad I did now!  Then there were all the experiments with white paint- Sennelier's zinc white is the white of choice for this piece, tho' there's very little of it that's "pure".

Final days on the easel for the portrait of Manny and Koss, aka "The Boys".  The painting has been great for my general mood- something that always happens when I paint dogs, but this one has particularly pleased me.