Bearded Collie Puppy Race - For Sale

Beardie Puppy Race - 12" x 24" Acrylic on Birch Panel
For Sale - $350

I loved the atypical dimensions of this panel, and wanted to come up with a design that would work well in the long narrow rectangular shape. It didn't take long to think of Beardie puppies running en masse! Though it's usual to stick with 3, and the 'rules' suggest odd numbers work best in terms of subjects in a painting, I decided there had to be 4 of them so they could show off the four colours Beardies come in - black, brown, blue and fawn. Hmmm, does my bias show with the brown pup leading the way? :-) In order for the pups to truly stand out I opted for a solid black background rather than putting them in a scene. I feel the solid background and the hard edges on the pups gives a nice balance between a realistic portrait and a more 'artsy' look.

This is a somewhat large painting, measuring 12" high x 24" wide, and is on gallery panel which has a depth of 1 1/2". The edges are painted black as well, and the piece needs no framing. It comes ready to hang. The painting has been given several coats of a UV protective gloss varnish.

This piece is for sale - $350, plus shipping.

A larger image of this painting can be seen on my website, on the following page:
http://www.madigan-wyndian.com/artforsale.htm

Exotic Hardwood Bearded Collie Pins - For Sale

Occasionally I like to dabble in different creative areas other than painting, and working with wood is one of those areas. These are Bearded Collie pins, made from various exotic hardwoods, and they are for sale. They were cut from 1/8" thick wood, sanded to an ultra smooth finish, and then waxed and buffed. The pin back was attached with a strong glue. The standing Beardies measure a little under 2" wide overall and 1 1/2" high, and the moving Beardies measure approx 2 1/4" wide and 1" high. The woods used for these pins are cocobolo, honduras rosewood, padauk, and purpleheart. Please note it is normal for some colour change to occur over time as the wood is exposed to sunlight, with most becoming slightly darker/browner.

Pins are $35 each, plus $3 shipping within North America, or $6 for shipping Internationally. I will have these with me at the BCCC specialty in August if someone prefers to pick one up in person and save the shipping. Though I may do more of these in the future from time to time, they will remain an 'occasional' item at best so if you like them, get one now! Contact me if you are interested.

And now for something completely different!

Painted Ostrich Egg - commissioned piece

A couple of years ago I picked up an ostrich egg at a local farmer's market. I'd seen paintings done on ostrich eggs before and since I'm always interested in trying new things I thought it might be fun to do. It only took 2 years to finally get around to it! The paintings I'd seen done on ostrich eggs were generally images of wildlife or flowers that just happened to be done on the unique surface. Nice as those were, I wanted to really take advantage of it being, well, an egg, and so I came up with the idea of painting a Beardie pup to appear to be hatching from the egg. That first piece can be seen on the miscellaneous page on my website, at www.madigan-wyndian.com/miscellaneous.htm. Shortly after I put the photo on my website I was contacted by someone who had seen it and was interested in having me paint one like it for her. The vendor I'd bought my egg from was no longer selling them, but I was able to find another source not too far away. Ostrich eggs come in a bit of a range of sizes and shapes, with some more oval and others more round. My original egg had been a smallish oval egg (about 5" tall and 3 1/2" wide,) so it was a bit of a surprise to see these new eggs being substantially bigger and more round in shape, not to mention a fair bit heavier. This one measures about 7" tall, and approx. 5" wide.

For this commissioned piece the client wanted it to be a brown Beardie pup, and sent a few pictures of one of her girls as a baby to use as a reference so I could paint it to look like her. Ostrich eggs are not difficult to paint on per se, but with the shell being a somewhat slick surface it does take some preparation to ensure the paint adheres properly, and the curved surface makes transferring the drawing a little bit of a challenge. Plus, there's always the worry of dropping it!

Once completed I sent a photo to the client for approval, and then packed it up to send it off - in a large box and using lots of bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts! It arrived at its destination safe and sound and the appreciative raves about it from the client were music to my ears. Oh, and for those who might be wondering, I buy the eggs already emptied and cleaned.