Helen is a dog lover whose life changed after she welcomed a new member into the family, Monty, a stray who had spent three years at a rescue centre. His many issues from fear and anxiety, leading to reactivity to strangers and other dogs was a big problem, but their love for Monty meant Helen and her husband were determined to help Monty be happy in his life! One thing led to another and with help from several dog charities including Yellow Dog UK https://yellowdoguk.co.uk/ Monty learnt to be a much more relaxed and happy dog.
The journey was challenging but now both Monty and Helen have found new joy and happiness and Helen’s art has been an important and inspiring part of this wonderful adventure … This is Helen’s story…
‘In 2020, we had the pandemic. This brought along a whole new level of Monty’s behaviour problems as like a lot of dogs, he developed separation anxiety. We went from having a dog that could be left comfortably for four hours to having a dog that was barking and whining before we’d even got to the end of the garden path. So we jumped into behaviour modification for the second time. My working hours were reduced, absences were managed and dog sitters were slowly introduced into Monty’s tiny circle of trust. We joined an online separation anxiety course and gradually Monty was able to be left for longer and longer.
Once Monty was able to be left for two hours I joined a local painting class. I really enjoyed my painting lessons as it was my two hours of relaxation every week. I was absolutely gutted when the rent on the unit shot up and the tutor had to stop the lessons. I couldn’t find any other lessons locally where you could work on your own art whilst getting advice from a tutor but sometime after that an advert popped up on Facebook for online drawing tutorials with Bonny Snowdon Academy…
Over the next few months I followed various tutorials and then started working from my own photo references. One of my friends paid me to do a commission of her cat and gradually more and more people started buying commissions.
I now work from home on my wildlife and pet portraits, alongside my art teacher job. I’m so lucky to have two jobs that I absolutely love AND I get to spend more time with Monty, who is now over 13 and pretty much the perfect dog,
One of my favourite things about being a pet portrait artist is hearing all the relatable stories and memories about people’s dogs and seeing so many special photos. I love the dogs pulling hilarious faces, the cute puppies, the special rescue dogs, the water babies, the food and toy obsessed ones and the gorgeous grey faces of all the adorable seniors.
My memorial portraits are probably the most special of all, as someone has trusted me to create a beautiful piece of art of their furry family member, which will be displayed in pride of place for many years, and which will bring back all those feelings of love every time they look at it.
If you’re interested in having a pet commission, I can help with selecting the photos which will work best for composition, detail and colours and if you’re after a memorial portrait and don’t have many clear, detailed photos I can probably help with this too.
And most importantly, because raising awareness ofYellow Dog UK is really close to my heart, if you quote Yellow Dog UK https://yellowdoguk.co.uk/ I’ll give 10% of the cost to the charity. That way, more people can learn about our special “Yellow” dogs.’
If you feel Yellow Dog UK https://yellowdoguk.co.uk/ could help you and your dog, please do get in touch !