Dutch photographer Maarten Wetsema has created some of the most fetching canine portraits we’ve come across. Wetsema is represented by Van Kranendonk Gallery in The Hague, The Netherlands. He has had numerous international exhibitions, and his images have appeared at Photo Miami and Paris Photo. Here are some our favorite shots from his portfolio…
Michael Pratt was born in Roswell, New Mexico. A ceramist and painter, Michael co-founded Pratt & Larson Ceramics in Portland, Oregon in 1980. Pratt resides with his wife in Portland, Oregon with “two rescue cats that have control issues”. Their beloved toy poodle Kirby (AKA Benito Poodlini) passed away recently, but the “big and stocky with an attitude” pet was definitely the kind you could imagine gracing Pratt’s canvasses.
Tattooing is common practice in Portland, and whilst sitting at a café one day, Pratt couldn’t help but notice 50 or so tattooed men and women across the street, as well as a striking French Bulldog. Inspiration hit, and thus the images of dogs with tattoos were born, depicting an “almost iconic image of Portland”. Says Pratt, “Tattooing, at its best, is a narrative of a person’s experiences and preferences. They tell the story of an individual. We tell our pet’s stories all the time. We see the characteristics that strike us (as) cute, funny, mean, ironic… to combine the two seemed only a logical extension of the thought. Let the animals tell their own stories through their tattoos.”
Each dog has a name and a story to tell (like Lucy, who ‘had that street dog flair about her’ and ‘had been around the block a few times’) and some even have a sci-fi bent to them, although this is not necessarily a nod to the mysterious Roswell/UFO brouhaha.
A typical piece begins with the animal itself. Pratt will photograph a dog that catches his eye, draw it onto a panel, then paint with acrylic, channeling his own self, from his sense of irony to his humour, into the piece. He says, “The whole character of the portrait and the choice of the tattoos develop as the painting develops. The whole thing comes to life as the image develops. The story becomes apparent through my involvement with the painting.”
The reaction from the public has been an eye opener for Pratt, who has enjoyed observing their interest in the convergence of cultures — passionate or not. “It has raised my awareness of how people relate to their pets, and to art that suggests they see them in a different light” he observes.
Here are some of our favorite images from the Tattoo’d Dogs series…
(Via: Four&Sons)
We still do not have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads. But good news! We have these pet beds that look like sharks. And if you put your pet inside the bed and take a photo with a flash, you’ll get a shark with lasers! BAM. Pretty impressive, we think.
These super fun pet beds are sized for small dogs, cats, or pocket pets. They’re made with nanotechnology which makes them self-cleaning. The particles in the fabric will absorb bacteria and pet odors and all you need to do to refresh the bed is unzip it every so often and let it sit in the sunshine. In case of bigger messes, the bed is surface washable and the inner cushion can be thrown in the washing machine.
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Available for purchase from ThinkGeek
Then a wild Mad Dog appeared!
One thing led to another..
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Original BBQ Sauce Label
Mustard BBQ Sauce Label
Enjoy every last drop with good friends!
One day while completing an oil painting of a field artist Iris Scott needed to make a few quick adjustments to some yellow flowers but every brush at her disposal was stained a deep dark blue. Not wanting to stop and wash the brushes she decided to make a few quick touch ups with her fingers, a small change to her process that would immediately change the course of her career. Wearing a pair of surgical gloves Scott now paints exclusively with her fingers bringing an impressionistic sense of color and texture to all of her paintings. The artist has a number of original works available on her website as well as prints over on Etsy, and here’s a quick video of her discussing her work on YouTube.
(Via: Colossal)
Top 10: Street Art Featuring Dogs (Part 1)
Top 10: Street Art Featuring Dogs (Part 2)
Top 10: Street Art Featuring Dogs (Part 3)
Light painting is simply long exposure photography using lights to create objects and add effects into the photo that are not actually present in real life. Here are some examples of what you can create using this interesting technique…
Need a pick-me-up? Check out the project “Your Pet and You” by photographer Tobias Lang of Hamburg, Germany. The series is composed of beautiful portraits of all kinds of pets and their loving owners.
Lang has issued an open call for pets, inviting any pet owners who would like to participate to pay a visit to his studio. As a result, the project has a good deal of diversity. Sure, an overwhelming majority of the photographs are of dogs and cats, but you’ll also find rather exotic pets sprinkled in as well.
There are owls, snakes, lizards, tarantulas, turtles, ferrets, and more.
The project started one evening when Lang noticed his roommate’s cat sitting atop a block of wood. He decided to turn this simple “pedestal” and use it as a setting for animal portraits. The next day he photographed his friend and his friend’s pet dog, and the project was born.
Lang continued to incorporate the wooden block into his images, and the project began to take shape as more people volunteered themselves and their companions.
Okay, okay… this one isn’t exactly a “pet”
Lang says he’s still looking for other pets that aren’t in his collection yet, including piglets, goldfish, meerkats, parrots, geese, chickens, and anything that’s not a typical pet. “Every animal that can sit or stand on the wooden block is welcome,” Lang says. The block measures about one square foot on top, so “it’s not possible to photograph horses.” In all, Lang hopes to photograph 200 pets and their owners.
He’s also planning to publish a book containing the portraits, and is trying to raise funds through his website in order to do so. You can find all the portraits Lang has captured so far over on the project’s website.
(Via: Michael Zhang – PetaPixel)
