Creating the Pet Portrait "Viva Pickles!"

I completed this personalized pet portrait for one of my good friends, Sarah, several years ago. The English Bulldog Pickles is the fabulous, "meaty little ham" (as we call her) in this painting. She is also the apple of her mother’s eye and the wiggly welcome party to all of Sarah’s guests.

One of Pickles most distinctive features is her tongue, which is always sticking out in hilarious fashion due to her adorable under bite.  The second quality she is known for is her laziness, and, in particular, how she weirdly lays with her front legs underneath her. So when visualizing her portrait, I naturally thought of her laying down, lazily looking up at me.

​The other factor that came into mind when creating this portrait was Sarah’s love of and participation in Fiesta San Antonio. (Fiesta is also how Sarah and I met and became friends, so it has extra significance to me). Suddenly, the idea of putting a flower crown on Pickles’ head came to me! So, I had Sarah put a flower crown on a sleeping Pickles and send me a photo of it! 

​The colorful, paper flower crowns of Fiesta are not only a fun accessory during Fiesta Week, but also a must have item at all festive parties thrown by San Antonians, year round. Furthermore, I loved the added bonus of how funny the feminine crown looked on the “less than feminine” Pickles! : )  Lastly, when I was painting the crown, the turquoise flower was the only one that didn’t fit on the front, so I decided to pull out more of that color by painting the ground turquoise (Side note: blue – no matter the shade – is my favorite paint color to work with, so I couldn’t let an opportunity to use it slip away.)

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I hope you enjoyed getting to learn more about my process for creating the pet portrait “Viva Pickles!” To this day, it is one of my favorite paintings because of how much fun it was to bring to life, and because of how much joy it brings my friend, Sarah, who says she smiles every time she walks past it. (The photo to the left is the picture Sarah sent me after she had it framed and hung in her kitchen!)

To order your own personalized pet portrait, please contact me at [email protected]!


Victoria Champion

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