…is awesome when they come from a talented photographer!

Liz Cooper is not only a fantastic person, and good-looking to boot, but she is also a wonderful photographer. And, she is a very good friend of mine, too. Back in May, Liz and her parents commissioned me to paint Henry, the newest addition to the family for Liz’s sister Louise, for Mother’s Day. For Liz’s big 3-0, I offered a painting of her parents’ cat Casey, whom she has told me many times she is “in love with.” We spend a lot of our time together talking about our cats.

For both of these paintings, she provided me with her own photos, which made the task of painting just a little bit easier. Check out the source photos:

Beautiful, huh? And here are the finished paintings from the photos:

It’s strange, because working from such sharply focused photos somehow seemed to allow me to take more liberties. Both of the finished portraits are in places much more painterly than some of my other works. I think we should collaborate more!

To see more of Liz’s wonderful work, please visit www.lizzography.com. She will be photographing my wedding next year, by the way! (I hope!)

For more of my pet portraits, head over here and go here for portaits of people

I am going to be launching a new section to my site soon, too, to show off non-portraiture pursuits, starting with black and white “portraits” of my little historic town, Perth, Ontario. Watch for it! Should be tonight or tomorrow if I stay on track.