Claire's Pet Portraits

The week started well when I heard the connections of Sychronised liked my portrait of their Gold cup winner. It is a difficult time for them having lost him in the national so we will wait and see patiently what happens to the picture.
I am now working on a picture of the Grand National winner. This is different for me and proving great fun.
I now have over 70 paintings ready for my first exhibition so the pressure is building. I move them round from room to room trying to find the correct spots for them . My daughter and husband then give their suggested prices. Phew so much to think about!
Lots of god TV this weekend. I loved the Britains got talent winner. Hopefully it will make one or two people think about they treat animals. But I doubt it.
This afternoon we went delivering invites for my preview night. A great reaction so far!
A lovely dog walk on Minchinhampton common was slightly tainted by Pepper the labradoodle insisting on putting her newly found prized Ball back into in a big pond of water and then getting really stressed when she could not find it. Silly Girl!
Off this week to deliver a black lab painting and I must ring an old friend in Swindon who wants her dog painted.
Meanwhile Daughter is working hard on her portrail of Buckingham Palace for er art show. My kitchen now resembles an artist studio!!
Have a great week everyone and more news next week.

The house is hive of activity as I prepare for my exhibition. I am painting, framing and positioning all at the same time it seems!! I have over 30 works to show with many more to do. I am out with the camera taking images and rejecting most of them.
My Gold Cup winner picture will be shown to connections tomorrow so it is exciting to see what they think.
In the meantime we are compiling invitations and writing to the great and good to see if they will show up.
My husband keeps all the records on his computer so we have many people to inviite.
It is exciting not knowing how it will go. I might not actually sell one painting it has to be said. I would love to sell 10 but who knows. These are tough times.
Meanwhile my poor garden drowns. I love the tulips at this time of year and they look like drowned rats.
am now working on the Grand National winner as my next portrait.
Today I delivered a lovely Brown Lab Portrait for someones surprise Birthday present. I hope they love it.
Ok speak next week….. Bye

So long time no post- Naughty Girl! I have however been very busy painting all kinds if everything for my first exhibition in Mid June.
I want to raise funds for my daughters ad college fees. S0 I have been hard at work painting the Gold Cup Winner, sea scenes, beach scenes and many wild animals.
Commission enquiries continue to come. I have been approached from customers in Newmarket, Melksham and near Bristol lately. The Bristol people already have had one labrador painted so this is their second Claire Stallard.
Just a small post tonight. If you do want to see the fruits of my labours I will put all the paintings on the web in June so do tell your friends please.
Finally do go to my facebook and watch the film of the missing labrador in the North of the Country. It must just be heart wrenching to have your dog stolen or lost. Terrible, let us hope they find him
Thanks
Claire

Good evening.
I hope I find you well. Tonight I want to tell you about a new venture I am embarking on. Our daughter Ran recently got offered a place into the best Advertising College in London. There are only 30 students in the college each year out of 1000 applicants. So excuse our delight!
reality has now dawned as we have to find £12000 in fees and that again in living expenses.
Ran herself has set about fund raising with gusto as a student loan is not applicable for this college. She is going to offer her artistic skills to anyone or any company that wants her in an effort to raise £5000.
So I have set about painting about 15 wild animal portraits which will sold on the web later in the year, if you are interested please let me know. I am currently working on the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, doing a large oil of him.
My husband, bless him, is going to walk the Cotswold way and raise a £2000 he hopes. So guys, where there is a will there is a way!!
I will keep you informed.
Since I have had a fabulous testimonial from my clients in Arbroath for who I painted the Rotties. It was great working for them as it was the usual surprise for the lady of the house but the Gentleman works offshore on our oil rigs so I was getting pictures and questions right from the North Sea. Funny old world.
Tonight I have had another call thanking me for the painting of a little Shitszu. This one does look very sweet even a little ET like my husband said. Naughty Boy.
I will put the picture on the web soon.
Good Night and more next week.

So March arrives. I seem to have been doing little else but getting urgently required portraits finished. So whilst I still have plenty to do all the urgent ones are completed.
This week I have delivered a dog portrait to Devizes, my old stomping ground. It was brilliantly received and there was much tears and happiness which of course delights me. 2 More commissions booked for another day from the same place so all in all a great visit. Mum and I stopped in Marlborough on the way home for a coffee and a bit of window shopping. What a lovely town that is. Pepper our dog also enjoyed it because it was the first of 2 days she got to go to work with her Dad who she adores. I gather they want to make her a practice partner at my husbands financial services practice because she views proceedings from the sofa before a wander down the Stonehouse canal at lunch time to annoy the ducks and moorhen.
On Friday I at last got my Christmas present day out at Foodworks a posh cookery School near Cheltenham. I had a wonderful day with chef Jonathan and others learning to cook fish properly. I came home with Squid and prawns and Haddock risotto to test on the family. They loved it. A super course and super day.
Welcome all new twitter followers. I cant say I understand it but it seems good fun and it certainly is interesting to watch the numbers build.
We are needing to raise a lot of money to help daughter go to an advertising School in September so we have been sat down talking that through. I found a web site that contains many scholarships and benefactors but I only can hope someone will help us. She has bags of artistic talent and creativity and deserves her chance.
Saturday and I had a visit from a client with a sweet little Shitzu. I hope I have spelt that correctly. In the afternoon it was so nice we all headed to the canal side for a walk out into the country. How lucky we are to live here as many of you will have seen in the Countryfile programme tonight.
Have a good week all. Cheltenham National Hunt Festival will soon be here. A sure sign spring is on its way. Will it bring green shoots of business too?
Claire

Oh How chilly it has been this week. A real job to keep myself warm. On Wednesday i drove out to the south Cotswolds to photograph a nice black lab. Another Black Lab !! There are so many out there, but they are lovely dogs. It is always good to meet the dog and its ownner. Cannot explain why but it does help and its fun to get out of course.
I have made good progress with a greyhound which I am very pleased with. They make beautiful portraits.
On friday I headed to Wiltshire to photograph a lovely Border Terrier or BT as known in this house. I took mum and we had a lovely mouch around a pretty Wiltshire town Today Sunday I have met with a lady who has brought a dog to me for painting. This will be a surprise for its owner so no more clues today, more about her in a month or two!. She was coming yesterday but like for many the snow put paid to that. I don’t drive on white roads that’s for sure!
Anyway you can see from the above that this has been a week of taking photos which is always the second stage of my work. The first stage being the inquiry and sale. Mr S will be sent to the computer to send the chosen photographs off to photobox whose quality I like.
Then its the sketch stage followed by the painting and then despatch.

Yesterday I received a surprise piece of post, out of the blue the ex england cricketer and now famous Artist Jack Russell sent me a card saying how much he much he was enjoying the Claire Stallard website. It was a lovely surprise and when you get unsolicited praise from successful artists it makes those lonely hours in the studio all the more worthwhile.
So enough from me this week and I hope you all have a good week whether you are in a warm and cosy office or on a windy oil rig in the North Sea.

So another week done , more painting , more inquiries and a little bit of organisation needed. I have been fitting people in without being sure where to fit them. So I  gathered my papers and emails and sat down with Mr S, my  manager man, and worked out a time schedule which will take me to April/May time.

I started by photographing a lovely greyhound in a public place where we are members. That sadly all went horribly wrong when I lent the greyhounds mum (not the dog you understand) Mr S’s ticket. Yes you have guessed, we have been waived through for many years but both she and I got stopped, I did a bit of blagging and was waived on and I felt like someone off the great Escape until it dawned on me that my lady behind had a card on with it Mr S’s name. How embarrassing but she was a real saint about it but good job it is  my own business,I wouldn’t want to have to explain that one!!

On a more mundane note I was asked to paint a flat coat retriever for a lady as a surprise but as I cannot do it for a month or two, we are going to send the client a Claire Stallard voucher. Which is a first but it’s a good idea so I will need to design a nice voucher for someone to receive.
I have finished the Rotty portrait and sent a draft of it to the lovely owner. She/He (no clues given) is very pleased and it will soon be packed and sent safetly.
Now if I had a B&BI would meet all my customers but my husband and I speak to my clients and very rarely ever meet them unless they are local. I wonder how clients I have walked passed not knowing they have one of my paintings.
I had a meeting with my framer on friday and he told me what a good job I had done of the 3 dogs that are currently pic of the week on the website because he had seen the photos I have worked from. Without the internet I only have a tiny business but some of these photos coming in, whilst lovely to their owners, are a nightmare for me. A poor picture of your much loved dog, ladies and gents will never make a fine portrait. Let me go out with the camera please, whenever possible.
So today I am working on a pointer from the south of the UK and I very much am looking forward to meeting his/her owner in a week or two. We shall not be going anywhere where a membership ticket is needed.
My tax return is filed, there are 18 pots of Seville Marmalade in my kitchen (Mr S production) and my daughter is home from a week of drawing and painting in Paris, lucky girl. As I have said before I fell into this work but my daughter has had her love  of art from a very early age and has an A star A level to show for it and is now off to Advertising School in London to train to be an Art Director in that World. I do  wish my teachers had been a little more inspiring…. Have a good week all.

Claire

A mixed week this week in the world of the pet portrait artist. I prepared a picture of a cat I have recently done and sent it east. the person who commissioned it replied by email how pleased he was and he was rushing off to the framers. The money magically arrived in my bank account and everyone is happy, that is everyone except the intended recipient who of course knows not of its existence!
I was commissioned this week to paint a black lab in the south Cotswold s for May time. That is great and the client sounds lovely too. I was also asked to quote for dog for the end of the year. On of my favorite breeds to do. So we can say my first portrait for Christmas 2012 has been asked about. It is great people are giving me time to book them in. I hate saying “no” to customers but I cannot upscale this business.
My let down this week was that in was excited about going on my Fish Cookery course at Foodworks Cheltenham. However I got a phone call on Friday morning saying the had had an accident and a replacement could not be found at such short notice. Naturally we must wish him well and these things cannot be helped but to hear as i was about to go out the door was somewhat frustrating. So retail therapy was demanded and off I went the shops! Well you have to don’t you. Trouble was No1 Daughter came to and needed clothes for her Art Trip to Paris.
Paris, we never went anywhere at School or College!
My next success was getting asked to paint a London living rabbit! He looks very cute I have to say but I shall not be touching him because I am totally allergic to all matters floppy bunny!
Finally my surprise, I was facing an empty weekend as my husband was off on a boozy reunion but my sister called. She needed the Cotswolds for a weekend to get away so she arrived with her 2 boys and a jolly fun time we all had.
So Monday and it will be back to my Rottweiler painting. Could it be yours?
Have a great week
Claire

One of my big successes was meeting Fenella last year who ask me to paint her friends dog Ruby. Geoff is the landlord of the Crown pub in Kemerton just near Tewkesbury. I urge you to go and visit him. We had a fabulous roast lunch there for not too many shillings. A really nice meal in what i call a proper pub. You can always judge a pub by its locals and a really friendly bunch they are. Anyway Ruby’s portrait now adorns the Bar and I am told she has had many admirers already. I love working for nice people and that’s exactly what Geoff and Fenella are.
I am now working on 2 Rottweilers but I will tell their tale when all is done.
Tomorrow a cat portrait will go in a strong tube to essex where I am told its going to make someone very happy.
This week i need to fill in my tax return , oh joy of joys!
Someone e mailed me last week and said what was business pipeline like. I said that I have work until the end of March and hopefully i will start to get some more inquiries.
On friday of this week I get to experience my Christmas present. i am off to posh cookery school. My husband was worried about giving me this present as it might have been taken the wrong way. But No I want to cook more fish so that’s what I am off to do.
More about that next Sunday
Claire

Hello all blog readers and welcome back to the world of my pet portrait painting. Apologies for not posting for a while now but I thought you ought to have a rest.for a week or two. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that!
Well I have been gathering feedback from my christmas portraits. I am delighted with that feedback and you can read the testimonials on my site. It is great when you read that you have made someone’s christmas.
I start the year with a stack of work to do. I am currently on working on an existing clients Mums 3 dogs. Not the easiest pictures to work from but I am getting there. Then it will be a cat and then 2 lovely Scottish rotties.
I got a number of Christmas cards from clients and some came with sadness that to tell me that passed subjects have gone to Gods great Kennel bless them.
Sadly some things are not for ever but I can sign off today in the knowledge that my clients have portraits of their loved ones to cherish for ever.
Have a great week.