A few months ago, Tatyana Soubbotina offered to paint a portrait of Zoey for Sarah's birthday. Tatyana has only been painting for about a year or so. She paints mainly portraits of people, pets and some landscapes but each one is infused with something that marks her as an artist who has an enormous gift.
Tatyana had never met Zoey but she asked for some photos of her. I sent about five or six photos that I thought best represented the Zoey we knew. (See the blog that I wrote on Zoey a few blogs below). Let's face it, a picture of a black dog does not have too many distinguishing features! The eyes rarely show up and there is no "shading" on a black dog. A black dog is a black dog. Tatyana indicated that she was not finding too much to work with and asked for more photos. Of the second batch, the photo below was the one she seized upon.
Tatayana has captured the spirit, the wonderful excitement in Zoey's face, her intense focus, the wagging tail, the tinges of purple in Zoey's coat, the almost "posed" juxtaposition of the white dog, and the shimmering Fall colors in the river. Sarah was beyond thrilled. I think Jane summed it up best in an e-mail she sent the morning after Sarah's birthday:
"Just looked at the painting again in daylight. It is Zoey".
Thank you, Tatyana. Zoey will be with us for evermore.
Tatyana had never met Zoey but she asked for some photos of her. I sent about five or six photos that I thought best represented the Zoey we knew. (See the blog that I wrote on Zoey a few blogs below). Let's face it, a picture of a black dog does not have too many distinguishing features! The eyes rarely show up and there is no "shading" on a black dog. A black dog is a black dog. Tatyana indicated that she was not finding too much to work with and asked for more photos. Of the second batch, the photo below was the one she seized upon.
She took the photo, cropped it and just showed Zoey's head. She did a rough charcoal drawing for a portrait painting and I thought it was magnificent--it really captured the Zoey who lived for water and swimming. But Tatyana was not happy with the drawing. So, we decided that she should paint the whole photo--even though that introduced a lot of complexity in terms of capturing the whole of Zoey, the other dog and the multiple Fall colors in the water. Here is the amazing result.
Tatayana has captured the spirit, the wonderful excitement in Zoey's face, her intense focus, the wagging tail, the tinges of purple in Zoey's coat, the almost "posed" juxtaposition of the white dog, and the shimmering Fall colors in the river. Sarah was beyond thrilled. I think Jane summed it up best in an e-mail she sent the morning after Sarah's birthday:
"Just looked at the painting again in daylight. It is Zoey".
Thank you, Tatyana. Zoey will be with us for evermore.
It is an amazing painting. Zoey is forever watching over me when I sit in the living room - I love it!
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