2/5 – Rose, 6×6 oil on panel. 1001dogs.tumblr.com
Dogs
2/4 – Auguste, Dog #63
Artwork, Dogs, February 2018Auguste, Dog #63 – 1001dogs.tumblr.com
All artwork available via Daily Paintworks site
February 3rd – Camille
Artwork, Dogs, February 2018
2/3 – Dog #62, Camille 6×6 oil on panel
February 2nd, Hugo
Artwork, Dogs, February 2018
2/2 Hugo, Dog #61, 6×6 oil on panel
Are you ready for a(n Art) Challenge?
Dogs, February 2018, Professional PracticesI am thankful that I am finally getting over a rather rough cold, as well as healing up from a freak fall on my porch stairs. It was a rough couple weeks. It’s been a while since I painted, from sheer pain/exhaustion/feeling icky. My energy came back, and I discovered that I will happily work away listening to Audible or podcasts. I get away to distracted listening to the news.
We are still waiting for an electrician to come by and fix our electrical issue – all the rooms on one of our electrical circuits is being temperamental. It is kinda working, but it affects my daughter’s bedroom and my studio, so I have taken over the dining room table.
But, I digress. I was listening to the Leslie Saeta Artists Helping Artists Podcast, and she is promoting her February “30 in 30 Art Challenge” I was originally not going to join up, but, I have changed my mind. Here’s why, and some background.
I was first introduced to the concept of art challenge around 2008-2009. It was a show called The Forgotten Works Challenge, held at the Tashiro Kaplan Building near Pioneer Square, Seattle. The “Challenge” consisted of creating 30 artworks on 8×10 canvasboard panels, within 30 days. Exactly. That’s a lot of surface to cover. I remember telling the coordinator I would not be able to complete the challenge – he said – slap some sharpie smiley faces on the blank ones, but bring them ALL back. Light Bulb! Since then, though, I have figured out how to complete all the panels. 😉
Since then, I have pretty much done some variation of the 30 day challenge. Sometimes even a couple times a year. If you check out the sidebar on this blog, most of the Series posted were done in that mindset. What can I say, I like series. Also, it sure made me a better, faster, more confident painter.
I think it has helped me more recently, to have some kind of theme. So my theme for the February 30 in 30 Challenge is The Brown Dog. Why? Well, it’s the Year of the Dog in the Chinese Lunar New Year. AND February 16th is the Lunar New Year start day! AND it’s the year of the EARTH dog (element, get it, brown dog, earth dog) AND my favorite subjects are… Dogs! So. Very. Excited.
Have you done Leslie’s Art Challenge? Or another one in your town? How have you approached it?
If you want to join Leslie’s Challenge, here’s the link – you you might have to cut and paste, sorry – https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30.html. I recommend listening to the latest Artists Helping Artists podcast – it talks about how this (or any) Art Challenge can be very useful to any artist. Enjoy!
Psst – check out Amber Honour’s blog – burntumberarts.com She’s doing her own January Challenge. And I believe #stradaeasel is doing one too! Follow them on FB or Instagram, and while you’re at it – check me out too of you want – @DanaAldisStudio
She-Ra’s Good Day
Artwork, Dogs
SheRa’s Good Day, 12″x12″ Oil on Canvas, Commission.
It’s a mixed wet & sunny Thanksgiving here in the Pacific Northwest. Winter is here, though, not the GOT ice-wall type, rather, mostly very wet and colder. I wish everyone a great day with friends and family.
When I started working for Michaels Arts & Crafts as a Grumbacher/Chartpak painting instructor, our projects were divided up into four themes – Landscape, Seascape, Still Life and Floral. These I assume are the most popular subjects for their students. I would liken it to an “gateway subject” – which would “trick” you into learning how to paint the different techniques in the excercise.
It got me thinking, where did I fit in? What type of subject was my “gateway” subject? Well, for me, it’s animals. I am always going back to animals. Dogs in particular. That’s what more or less set me on a path of pet portraiture.
I love creating pet portraits. My hope is to capture a beautiful likeness of their pet. I work pretty much exclusively from photographs. Often the pet has passed, so this is especially touching.
She-Ra’s Good Day is a recent commission from a regular client. Not his dog, but he knew her well. I actually ended up combining two images to create the final painting. She appears to be soaking up the sun, taking a break on her walk on a lovely fall day. SheRa is a pittie, so of course, I had a lot of emotions come back from losing our Pete in March. However, this was, in a way, giving thanks for the gift he was to us, and that SheRa was to her family.
A happy holiday season to all – may you be merry and compassionate. And of course, support the arts.
Warmly, Dana
Brian & Millie – Why I paint dogs
DogsMy focus was drawing in school. I didn’t start painting regularly until 2008. My preferred medium is oil paint. My preferred subjects are dogs. Or at least, one I keep going back to paint.
For 5 years, I was a Chartpak/Grumbacher painting instructor for the Michaels store in Moscow, ID. If you don’t know the program, it offers 2 hour classes where you paint a 9×12 canvas, from start to finish, in one sitting. The interesting part is how they divided up the subjects into four categories – Still Life, Floral, Landscape, Seascape.
So that got me thinking – what do I love? What to I want to paint? It took a couple months, but then I realized that my passion was painting animals. Specifically, dogs. I’ve been painting dogs (and everything else with four legs or wings) ever since. You can check out some of my pet portrait commissions in my page section – I’d love to paint your pet!
I spend waaaay too much time on social media. (Why yes, I am on FB and Instagram @DanaAldisStudio) But, in my (weak) defense, that helped me make art and family connections as well as follow different animal rescues. One that caught my attention was Leave No Paws Behind, Inc. They take the last chance dogs, the ones that have been often horribly neglected, or dumped because they were too old. As frustrating as it is to watch, there is a silver lining, these dogs get the care they desperately needed.
Brian and Millie were two dogs I followed on FaceBook. Their page, The Life of Brian, is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, Millie passed away in 2016, and Brian also passed last month. They are terribly missed. I’m not sure how it happened, but in the last years, Brian became one of my muses. Dana (Brian’s “mom” takes great pictures)

The Kiss, Brian & Millie. 16×24 Oil on Canvas
My tribute to Millie & Brian is this painting of the two of them sharing a tender moment, “The Kiss”. I offering prints of the painting, with 25% of the sale to a local rescue near where I live. The 8″x12″ prints will be $45 plus shipping. They are fine art prints on beautiful printmaking paper.
And in non-art but all dog related news – introducing the new member of our “pack” – Dorothy the Goldendoodle. She’s 12 weeks old, not breed standard color, runt of the litter. She’s a little shy, and neither of us have had a puppy in our lives for over 15 years. All my friends expect to see paintings in the near future. 😉

Dorothy, The Goldendoodle @ 12 weeks
Below are links to some of the Animal Rescue pages I follow on FaceBook, as well as some of my favorite animal artist pages.
An Act of Dog – Artist Mark Barone created a a staggering 5500 shelter dogs https://www.facebook.com/anactofdog.org/
A great dog rescue organization – Big Fluffy Dog Rescue – also good for snarky commentary and imaginative breed descriptions https://www.facebook.com/bigfluffydogrescue/
And I have a lot more, but my FB page froze up (because I have so many liked pages) so I will post more later.
Pete, the 10K Rescue Dog
DogsSleeping, 10×10 oil on cradled wood panel
His full name was “Peter Pan, Peanut Butter Bean Burrito Supreme”

