Animal Portraiture Quotes

I've had encounters with animals that have been really mystical. I've always been really into animals. But the way they appear in the paintings, they come from my mind's eye more than: 'I'm gonna draw a dog now.' It isn't thought out: 'Now I'm gonna draw a bird.' They just appear.

You start with a generic body, but I think the first wall you hit with portraiture is comprised of history and storytelling and the nature of characters - whether they are historical or coming from literature or documentation. Those are the references we have to people, besides your family, and the intimacy of portraiture is in the specifics of individuals. For me, it came out of doing things about animals.

I never do the cute thing with animals; they are interesting shapes. I just use their profile. Because German shepherds are so easily recognizable, they would fall outside my purview.

I don't like persuaded sitters. I never could paint a cat if the cat had any scruples, religious, superstitious, or otherwise, about sitting.

The dog is the perfect portrait subject. He doesn't pose. He isn't aware of the camera.

I have a painting where somebody's holding a chicken, and underneath the chicken is somebody's head.

I mostly paint animals I'm familiar with, but I did a series of paintings of ravens, so I read everything about them.

I love to get into a landscape and paint my horses.

Do come back and draw the ferrets, they are the most lovely noble darlings in the world.