Hound's Roo Pet Portraits

A lasting tribute to a devoted companion

Specifications:
-All portraits are hand painted with high-quality non-toxic artist’s acrylic paints on fine art stretched canvas.
-You provide a favorite of your pet’s photos/poses. Include other snap shots that reveal "personality", if you like. Then the painting begins!

Options & Pricing:
-12 X 12 box-style stretched canvas: $150
-16 X 20 stretched canvas: $250 + (dependent on background details)
-24 x 36 stretched canvas: $1000 + (dependent on background details)
-Additional pets in one portrait:
16x20/ $100, 24x36/$300
Prices effective January 1, 2011
All art work copyrighted by Toni Youngblood © 2010

To Order a portrait of your companions,

1. Select the size painting(s) you would like.

2. Gather digital photos of your pet(s).

3. Select your favorite pose(s) of all your photos.

4. Then email me with photos and this information and additional comments by clicking

on the "Contact Me" button to the right ..............................................>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Examples of more loved pets...

Above: Bumbee "B", acrylic paint on canvas 2010 - Toni Youngblood

Above: Lynyrd, acrylic paint on canvas 2010 - Toni Youngblood

Above: Daisy, acrylic paint on canvas, 2010 - Toni Youngblood

Above: Cammie, acrylic paint on canvas, 2010 - Toni Youngblood

A lovely and loving greyhound mom commissioned me to paint these portraits of her three hounds. Coincidentally, the first hound shown, Lynyrd was a foster hound of mine back when I lived in Seattle. Now we are all living in SLC!

Harri-Berri

Pete

Red

Sadie

Boss

Nemo

Rita's closing shop...

Above: Not Without Precision, 2009 Encaustic paint and found objects - Toni Youngblood

I can't help but feel a little sad that Rita of Frolic Farm & Ginkgo Gallery is closing shop. I'm happy for her that she's off on a little adventure in Costa Rica with her recently graduated son before he enrolls his freshman year of college. Rita is an advocate for artists and quite the creative crafty gal herself. I loved visiting her at the shop---always something new and exciting going on. Her openings on SLC Gallery Stroll evenings were warm, lively and packed with interesting and friendly people. I'm sure we will hear more from Rita and I look forward to seeing her before long. I wished her well this afternoon as she and her helpers were loading up the truck to take the remaining contents of the shop to storage. I picked up the last couple of my own items on display. Rita recently sold my encaustic painting shown above---Not Without Precision. She loves encaustic work herself. Thank you, Rita for your can-do cheerfulness, dedication and advocacy for "your" artists!

Traveling show...

Above: Santorini Revisited, Watercolor painting on Fabriano paper - Toni Youngblood

The Utah Watercolor Society 2010 Spring Open Exhibition is over. However, a selection of paintings from the exhibit will be traveling around the state of Utah through the Utah Arts Council program. I was just notified that Santorini Revisited will be in this traveling show---for a year!

Constructions

Bacon and Eggs, Toni Youngblood 2010, Found objects

UNDER CONSTRUCTION...

 Photo and interior design by Toni Youngblood

Chair Chat...

Above: Hans Wegner wishbone chair, photo from Design of the 20th Century, TASCHEN

I LOVE chairs. I have way too many of them. I used to have way too many shoes (I used to love shoes---but now I only love the comfortable ones and those are the only ones I keep around. They are very few.) I've been daydreaming about owning a flock of Hans Wegner "wishbone" chairs for a couple of years. I've trimmed back my dream a bit to the idea of having only one---even a knock-off. They are quite pricey---one chair costs about $300 more than my monthly mortgage payment. If I had only one, it would keep company around my breakfast table with other (inexpensive) mid-century modern wood chairs I've collected from craigslist, etc.

A bit about the Wegner wishbone chair...The wishbone chair was Designed by Danish designer Hans J. Wegner in 1949. It is also known as the Model No. CH24 Y-chair and was licensed to the Johannes Hansen furniture making company along with numerous other chair designs by Hans Wegner. Johannes Hansen company has become the Carl Hansen & Sons Company. "By the 1950s, Wegner was one of the leading exponents of Scandinavian design and was internationally celebrated for his exquisitely balanced and beautifully crafted chairs that were, for the most part, constructed of solid wood. As a gifted designer and craftsman, Wegner simplified form and construction to create beautiful modern re-workings of traditional furniture types." (from Design of the 20th Century, Charlotte & Peter Fiell, Taschen 1999). The wishbone or Y-chair is still made today in a variety of hardwoods. Room & Board makes a version of the wishbone chair for $300--- $600 less than the licensed Carl Hansen & Sons Company version, depending on the wood variety and seat treatment selected. In 2010 Carl Hansen company began making a version in several shades of painted blue.

Photo above: Carl Hansen & Sons

Two weeks ago, I ran across a second-hand oak wishbone (knockoff) chair at a consignment shop asking what I considered a very reasonable price. I fell all over myself anxiously carrying it up to the counter. (Funny, I don't think I've ever carried a piece of furniture up to the counter. I guess I was afraid it would run away or vanish as if it were only a figment of imagination, if I didn't personally escort it to the counter.) It truly is a simple elegantly clean-lined beautifully designed chair as well as being physically well balanced and structurally sound. I have it home now in my breakfast room---the room is still under construction or I'd post photos here. I am including a few photos I've admired over the last couple of years that show this chair situated in various settings. They've provided fuel for my daydreams. ;o)

Living Etc.

Where is your treasure?

Wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure.
- Paulo Coelho
Above: Don't Fence Me Out, 2009 - acrylic paint on canvas by Toni Youngblood

I don't know why it is so difficult sometimes to know/find where our heart is. However, when I read the following from Steve Jobs (Entrepreneur Apple co-Founder), I see clues...
"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

Don’t be trapped by dogmas - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.

Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.

And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Everything else is secondary.”
And as for Paulo Coelho (quoted at the top of this post)...after many years of having his greatest desire and love thwarted by parents and other opposition, he finally found the courage to be a writer, as he had always wanted to be.
Above: Navigating Bliss, 2009 - Acrylic paint on canvas board by Toni Youngblood

And as for me and my heart . . ."we" are painting. ;o)