A beautiful girl plus some pocket portraits!

I don't get to paint portraits like this often, but I sure love painting pets and people in the same portrait! It makes my heart swoon to capture the love and relationship between a furry and a person!
I have to admit that I was nervous about painting this girl's beauty...but I think she translated nicely into my style! Meet Elissa:

This portrait was commissioned at Shop Til You Drop this year (my all-time FAVORITE craft fair). I love how it turned out- the blue striped shirt really adds character and depth to the painting. The silver background was the client's idea and I think it just makes her look even more like a super star! 

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For my art show I had to get almost everything framed, and if you've ever done custom framing at Michael's, Hobby Lobby or another popular framing store, you KNOW how expensive those suckers can be! I have some rather large paintings, up to 36x36", so I didn't want to blow $300 on each one. A friend of mine is a fantastic wood craftsmen and he agreed to build some very nice, simple floater frames for me at a fraction of the price I'd be robbed of from Michael's. Here's what he built me:

These pictures were taken with the art already hanging on the walls, so that's why they're angled and somewhat light-reflective, BUT you can at least see how the painting just sits inside the frame comfortably. So cool!

So as payment, I offered to do some custom portraits for Ken (the craftsmen) and his wife, Cheryl, since they have four kitties of their own. We did 6x6" pocket portraits, which are great because they can be hung in a grid style.

From left to right, top to bottom, Porche, Louis Vuitton, Oscar de la Renta, and Grey!
Thanks for the totally awesome frames, Ken, and to Cheryl for providing pictures of a spectacular mash of kitties!