My greatest loves are animals (pets and wild creatures), the environment, and painting animals in oils or watercolours, although I also very much enjoy painting, landscapes, flowers, people and buildings. I feel so lucky being able to combine the two great loves in my life - pet dogs, cats, indeed all pets, and wild animals, with my love of painting pet portraits and landscape paintings.

Having many pets of my own I know just how precious they are to us and what a special gift a portrait of a beloved pet is. Even more so when our pet has sadly died. Many of my commissions are memorials to much loved pets and they are a lasting tribute to a lost friend.

My greatest hates are the concreting over of our rapidly decreasing countryside, dangerous littering which damages wildlife, political correctness and political interference in the minutiae of our personal lives, overwhelming surveillance of this Country's people, denigration of our wonderful country's history by MPs who think it is their right to milk the expenses system or even fiddle it, and above all the EU. I consider the EU a corrupt organisation which has wrought havoc on much of our Country's industries, farming and fishing, with MEPs who are too often just riding the Brussels gravy train and only seem to give a token representation of this Country's interests.

Now back to my paintings - I have many requests for pet portraits as Christmas gifts. If this is the case, please do get your pet portraits orders in well before December. I would hate to have to turn anybody down because it was too late. In fact, if you want the pet portrait for Christmas, send the order in right away. The important thing is to get that important Christmas order in for your Pet Portraits so you are at the front of the queue.

The majority of my commissions for pet portraits come through the mail and from many parts of the world - the USA, Canada, Australia, Continental Europe, Eire, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and my own country, England.

I need at least one CLEAR photograph of the subject you wish me to paint. The clarity of the photo is crucial to the quality of the finished portrait. A 6"x4" photo is quite large enough, so long as the subject is just about filling the frame and is clear and in focus. I need to see the small details of the subject so that the original and unique character of your pet, person or place is retained in the finished portrait.

Although I have painted for as long as I can remember, I obtained a BA (Honours) Degree in Fine Art from The Lanchester Polytechnic (Coventry University) in 1982, and have been working as a professional artist for many years now, painting pet portraits of dogs, cats and all animals.

I care very much about animal welfare, the natural environment and the sympathetic care of my Country's heritage. I love England and feel very passionately about the urgent need to care for the English countryside with it's various wildlife and wildlife habitats. It is only by caring for their habitats that some of our most pressured wild animals, birds and plants have any chance of flourishing. We should all do our best to alleviate some of the harm man has done and try to prevent further harm.

My Home Life

My home is a small house on the outskirts of Coventry, in the Midlands of England, where I share a home with my brother Reg, three rescue dogs (Grip and Tarn), one cat, Rosa. and three goldfish in the garden pond called, George (red and white), Georgy Girl (also red and white) and Jack (red, white and blue).

I had a wild mallard duck for many years after she had been swept away from her mother in a violent storm. My son, who was about 13 years old, told the River Warden about the tiny duckling's plight, and was told him that he could have the duckling if he could get her as she would die without her mother. So, of course, what did my son do? Yes, he jumped into the river fully clothed and plucked her out of the water.

During the years we had "Me-Too", she went almost everywhere with us. I am afraid she had no idea she was a duck and cuddled up with the dogs to sleep.

My son Paul is now grown and he lives just around the corner from me, with my two young grandsons, Daniel and Jacob.

Within a few yards of my home are woods and fields and the dogs have great fun romping through the trees and meadows.

Mitzi, my 17 years old terrier, sadly died on 28th February 2002, sadly followed 12 weeks later, on 31st May by Percy, our 17 years old mongrel.

On 27 January 2003, we lost our beautiful cat Tansy to bowel cancer. She was not woken up from her exploratory operation, and allowed to peacefully pass on before things became too bad for her.

Then, just a short while later, on 3 March 2003, our lovely, 16 years old Border Terrier Quake also sadly died.

2004 - 2005

Tremor, my little black Fell Terrier, was just a month away from her 14th birthday when she also sadly died the following year on 14 April 2004. Her health had deteriorated after having a stroke in January 2004. She went blind very young but always had lots of energy and enthusiasm for life.

You couldn't tell Tremor was blind from the way she played with the other dogs and went swimming in the pond at every opportunity. She had an abiding passion for swimming and indulged it whenever she could. She did need a careful eye kept on her though, in the water and out, and a warning "MIND!" shouted if she was racing towards a tree, or a quick call if she had lost her bearings. When I had to shout "MIND!" to her, she skidded to a stop immediately and then felt her way slowly until I shouted the all clear signal which is "OK THEN!" Then she was off on her mad chases again.

2006 - 2008

We now have Breeze, a Border Collie mix, whom we re-homed from the Dogs Trust at Honiley, Warwickshire. After a while a Border Collie called Skye, whom we had been watching during the day, stayed with us for longer and longer periods and now, it appears, she is ours. It is safer we have her anyway, as she dislocated her hip 3 times and that would have been disastrous if nobody had been at home. I work from home so can check on her constantly.

In 2007 we also acquired Borage, an English Springer Spaniel. We just looked after him during the day at first but his owner realised that he was very fond of Skye and Breeze and did not like being away from them and they also had a very demanding job, with not much time to spare, so I think he is ours too now.

On 31 August 2008, Skye broke her cruciate ligament and was not able to walk on that leg. We had her booked in for an operation on 8 September 2008, to overcome the problem of the broken cruciate ligament, a TPLO. This involved cutting through the bone and re-aligning it with the lower limb, then screwing a plate on. During the surgery, they found she had also damaged her cartilage and they had to remove about half of it. Unfortunately, this means she will eventually have arthritis in that knee but the operation appears to have gone well and he was a good vet.

However, just after her operation, when the vet and nurse tried to make their post-op check, Skye was too scared would not let them near her leg and eventually landed on her back scrabbling, absolutely terrified. In the end, the vet phoned me up and explained they were having problems checking her as she was too distressed. I asked, "Would you like us to come and pick her up?" I have never heard such relief in a person's voice. Well, we picked her up after the vet had given her a pain-killing injection to last that first night and Skye seems to have progressed very nicely since then. Skye recovered well from this operation although her wiggly walk is now very pronounced.

2008 - 2009

In July 2009 Skye broke her other cruciate ligament in her right leg and she broke the cruciate ligament in her left leg in 2009.

Unfortunately, this is the year we lost both our Guinea Pigs. One day Tommy and Tufty the Guinea Pigs were fine so far as anybody could tell. The following day they looked a little quiet but only seemed a bit off. However, I made an immediate appointment as early as I could at the vets, which was the following day. By this time (the 2nd day of them appearing not quite right) the Guinea Pigs had deteriorated terribly overnight and Tufty died while the vet was examining him. Tommy died at home despite having antibiotics and everything the vet could dose him with after his brother's death. I have since found out that Tommy and Tufty appear to have had pneumonia which is often fatal in guinea pigs and very infectious.

My vet obviously did not know Guinea Pigs that well. Although they were rasping, she kept thinking it must be their back teeth. She said she could not see them properly until the Guinea Pigs were sedated. She cut the back teeth while they were under anaesthetic but that was not their problem. She gave them nothing for pneumonia as she hadn't a clue that was what they had. and to tell the truth, I don't think sedation to cut their back teeth could have been safe with their pneumonia. She was treating me rather rudely and what was worse, she was rather brusque in her examination of Tufty. She seemed to be treating him much too roughly, especially for such a sick little animal and was really distressing him. She was also not taking care he did not go near the edge of the table. When I put my hand out to protect him from going over the edge, she got shirty with me. Then, when she had treated Tufty too roughly and he squeaked, I picked him up to gently reassure him. I spoke gently to him saying, "Don't get so upset. You'll give yourself a heart attack. As I gently put him down again for her to finish her examination, I held him myself because she had so upset him but within minutes, I told the Vet, "He's gone!" His little heart had indeed failed. If this Vet had not been so shocked when Tufty died on her table, I would have taken the matter further. She did rush about trying to resuscitate him but it was not to be. Within a couple of days his litter mate Tommy died at home.

My advice to anybody new at keeping guinea pigs is find out if your Vet knows about them. Some of them don't all seem to know as much as they could and should. The one who treated my Piggies obviously hadn't a clue and I will always bear that guilt for letting her deal with them. Another piece of advice is always take your Guinea Pigs to the vet immediately they are ill. I could not get an appointment until the following day but now I would insist they see me the same day. These little animals can go downhill so fast it's frightening. And another thing is to separate the Guinea Pigs as soon as possible because Guinea Pig pneumonia is highly infectious.

After a while we felt we could offer a couple of Guinea Pigs a home with all new cages etc in case of any infectious problem from our previous pigs. So, Pip and Squeak arrived. Two males aged 8 weeks. Well, the store said they were both males. However, we discovered that Pip is definitely a little girl so they were separated until we had Squeak neutered.

We still have Rosa, the cat, whose sister Tansy we lost some years back. Rosa is getting on a bit but, apart from total deafness and a little senility, her health seems fine at the moment.

Most of the fish in the garden pond also seem very well but, unfortunately, Fred, a large goldfish aged about 8 years old has disappeared. His partner Freda is still there but there is no sign of Fred. I do not know what happened to him, whether a Heron has had him, (they do fly overhead and one was seen in my garden) or perhaps it was a neighbour's cat or even one of my own pets. Anyway, he is not there anymore.

Wild flowers, such as foxgloves, bluebells, primroses, meadow cowslips, ladies smock, buttercups, and violets, grow in abundance and the area is home to foxes, voles, field mice, moles, Muntjac deer, owls, lapwings, pheasants, woodcocks, kestrels, Peregrine Falcons, Buzzards, Bluetits, Longtailed tits, Bullfinches, Siskins, Finches. There is also a wonderful variety of butterflies, assorted dragonflies including the huge emperor dragonfly and so many other birds and animals I couldn't possibly mention them all.

The nearby pond is also home to more animals, mallard ducks, moorhens, frogs, toads, Great Crested Newts, Smooth Newts, Stickle-back fish, minnows, water boatmen and a myriad assorted other water creatures and insects, some of which are quite rare.

One of my greatest pleasures is wandering through the meadows with my dogs, sketchbook in hand, watching the English spring scenery pass on into summer and autumn and then watch the autumn leaves fall before the first snows of winter. Nobody has to be rich to enjoy these pleasures but how poor are those who can find no pleasure in them.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for further details or samples of my work, or if you have any query or just want a chat.

If you want a really unusual and special gift for a pet or animal lover for Christmas, Birthdays, Thanksgiving, Easter, Anniversaries, Retirements, Presentations or any other celebration, a portrait of a beloved pet is always a unique and very welcome gift. Whether it is a dog painting, cat painting, horse painting, wild animal painting, bird painting, child or adult human painting or a painting of someone's home and garden, it will bring delight and surprise to the recipient.

Pet Portraits of Special Pets make Special Gifts

Isabel Clark's Pet Portraits of Special Pets make very Special Gifts

Pet Portraits - Dog Portraits, Cat Portraits, Horses and Ponies, Wildlife, Animal Paintings, People Portraits and Landscape Paintings.

Pet Prints, Dog Prints, Animal Prints, Cat Prints, Horse Prints and Wildlife Prints from Pet Paintings by Isabel Clark may be found at www.VillageArt.co.uk

Also A5 Glossy Greeting Cards from Pet Paintings by Isabel Clark may be found on www.VillageArt.co.uk

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All images on this site are in tangible form and are fully copyrighted. None of them may not be reproduced or used in any form or any manner, or displayed on any website or any other forum without the express written consent of the owner, Isabel Clark BA (Hons) Fine Art.