WELCOME and thank you for visiting my new website. I have always had a natural aptitude for drawing and painting animals, people and landscapes. Although I am mostly a self-taught artist, I have attended work shops for drawing and portrait painting at The University of Georgia, Lamar Dodd School of Art, and I hold a Certificate from Instructional School of Art in Commercial and Illustration.
I have been a commercial artist for most of my career. For many years, I was the official artist for the Peabody Awards for Excellence in Journalism where I had the honor of creating the portraits of award winners such as Ed Bradley, John Chancellor, and Ted Turner to name a few. Although I have worked as a commercial artist, I have also been commissioned to do portraits of dogs, horses, cats and other animals for clients from all over the United States, Canada and Europe. My work has appeared on the covers of dog magazines such as THE RIDGEBACK, THE RIDGEBACK QUARTERLY and BICHONS FRISES as well as commercial publications and textbooks plus a variety of commercial items that were used for trophies and fundraisers for different organizations.
Having spent most of my life on a farm, I am very familiar with farm animals and the wild life that surrounds our 175-year-old farm in Philomath, GA. My sister, Nelda, and I have owned, raised and shown Rhodesian Ridgebacks since 1972 and RRCUS members since 1973. We are very proud of our Ridgebacks as we have been fortunate enough to have bred some top-winning and producing Ridgebacks in both conformation and performance with champions throughout the United States, Canada, South Africa and Europe. We have also owned and shown a French Bulldog to her championship and have successfully shown other breeds for fellow dog enthusiasts. We have taught training classes for both conformation and obedience. In addition, I have had a life-long love of horses being mostly involved with Arabian horses, but have also owned Quarter Horses, Welsh pony crosses and a Morgan horse.
My long involvement with animals, particularly dogs and horses, is one reason I am able to create such expressive, life-like portraits of my clients’ cherished pets. Training horses for pleasure trail riding and breeding, training and showing top-quality dogs enables me to develop a keen, educated eye for all types of animals so I can understand their body language, moods, personalities and expressions as well as knowing the conformational makeup of any animal I portray. It makes a huge difference in the quality of art work when artists are knowledgeable about the subjects they are portraying. I will go to great lengths to research any animal and the type of environment in which they were developed to better understand everything about them from the type of coat they have to their general behavior characteristics.
This is a new website, still a work in progress. Please check back later for more developments. Meanwhile, for information about portraits and landscape paintings, feel free to contact me: email – virginia@uga.edu or neldav@nu-z.net or phone 706-274-3226 weekends or after 7:00 PM eastern during the week. |
