The Story of a Memorial Painting and Video

When my mother-in-law asked me to paint a memorial painting for her I, of course, said yes. But then, I wondered what did I want to do? This is the third memorial piece she’s asked me to make for her. The first was for a dear friend who lost their cat. My sister-in-law asked me to paint a portrait of a Beagle for a friend who had lost hers a few years ago. They were sweet paintings, but illustrative - more cartoon-like than realistic. My mother-in-law wanted a smaller memorial, and a 4x4 canvas I had was perfect. The nice think about small paintings is hat you can easily tuck them into book shelves or set them onto of buffets and they don’t take up too much room. I knew that I wanted this memorial piece to look more, well, real. I decided that I’d focus on a portrait. Sadie, her Aussie, had been a black tri, so I knew the color palette that I’d be working with. I decided that I wanted a warm, happy background color and I went with yellow - saffron yellow, to be precise. 

I thought about working with oils for this painting, but decided that the long dry time was not something that I wanted to have to accommodate for when working on this painting. I do love the way that light reflects in oil paint, and that’s not something that generally happens with acrylic paint. Settling on acrylic, though, I mapped out the portrait that I wanted to use and began to apply my background. The paint that I used, the saffron yellow, is semi-opaque, so it needed two coats. I added some off-white paint and an antique gold to the corners to give the implication of light. I’ve found that it also adds more visual interest to a painting than a solid color.

Working on this memorial piece, I found myself thinking about Sadie. Sadie Sue was a sweetie. My husband adopted her several years ago and she lived with him for a little while and then transitioned to his parents household where she helped my mother-in-law keep an eye on our niece. Sadie was so devoted to our niece that she rarely left her side. My mother-in-law loves to tell stories about Sadie sleeping on the floor in front of the crib while my niece would take her naps. I met Sadie in 2020 and she was always happy to say hello. Aussies are the best dogs. I know, I’ve had two. My red tri passed away in 2021 and we got our second the same year (also a black Tri, named Holly). 

I always panic a little when I start a painting. What if I decide halfway through that I don’t like it? What if I get too stuck in my headspace and wrapped up in the way I think a line looks? There have been times when I get so frustrated with a painting I have to walk away from it. I wanted this memorial piece to be something that I enjoyed. So, I created a mental grid. 

Some artists will draw physical grids on their paintings. I like making a mental grid. I give myself a place that I’m going to start from (like an ear) and I work my way into different areas of the painting from there. Sometimes, I do this with a color. When I was working on this painting, I thought a lot about which color I wanted to start with and chose black because it took up so much real estate of the portrait. 

These dogs are one of the most popular breeds in the United States, and if you’ve ever been around one or owned one it’s easy to understand why. They’re, quite simply, a great animal. This medium sized herder has its genetic roots in Spain. There’s folklore surrounding the breed that Basque shepherds took the dogs with them to Australia, and then from there the dogs came to the United States in the when ranchers were sending sheep to the country. Per the American Kennel Club, and Juanita Ely - one of the oldest documented breeders of Australian shepherds, the breed came to Australia from the Great Pyrenees - an area between Spain and France. They took their animals to Australia to work, and from Australia came to the United States. Why are they associated with Australians and sheep instead of the Basque? Australian sheep had softer wool and they dominated the industry, per William Douglas, who is who is a director of Basque Studies at the University of Nevada. There was an increase in Basque immigration during the 1940s and many immigrants brought their dogs with them. 

The breed that so many people know and love is purely American. Aussies are known for their keen minds and their love of tricks. Many people use them for work dogs because of their magnificent herding ability. They gained popularity in rodeo circuits - many cowboys used them to help herd bulls and entertain. Aussies are a smart dog. They can be trained to do almost anything and have been used not only for herding, but also as service dogs, therapy dogs, and entertainers. The Aussie’s have beautiful and unique coat patterns, from merles to Tris and they often have multicolored eyes. Many Aussies will have naturally bobbed tails (a 1 in 5 change (my first Aussie, Bronson, was born this way). 

Their personalities are fun and spunky. They love being close to their family members. Sadie was definitely a social butterfly - you’d find her under the table or laying on the floor nearby where she could stay close to you. Aussies are agile dogs and are great jumpers - they can leap three to four feet into the air. Holly, my Aussie, loves to leap from the couch to an ottoman and back again. They’re full of endless energy. I hope that I captured that fun-loving, sweet-natured girl in this memorial painting. 

Something that I think about, a lot, is legacy. What I love about this little painting is that the base of it was used to create another piece of art for a dog trainer in town that works a lot with rescued dogs and shelter dogs to help them find their forever homes. Sadie was a rescue and I think that her face being associated with a business that gives so much back to dogs is a pretty great legacy. 

Note: I anticipated this painting taking about thirty minutes to complete. Total time from start to finish was two hours.