Abstract Impressionist Animal Paintings

Artist Comments
"This longhorn was located at a ranch in Southern Colorado," shares artist Heather Foster. "I am always amazed by longhorns because I expect them to be clumsy...

Artist Comments
"I admire pelicans. They are really sensational birds," shares artist Andres Lopez. "Being lovers of the sea, these birds are not usually seen in any other pa...

Artist Comments
Artist Sherri Aldawood shares her fascination with light by using highly contrasting colors. In this piece, she makes elegant Koi fishes her subjects. The symbol of love, strength and dedication. She mimics their graceful movements into her strokes resulting into this tranquil composition.

About the Artist
Sherri Aldawood didn't intend to always paint flowers, but over time her love of gardens started to permeate her art. She focuses on the light and color of the flowers on the canvas. Sherri prefers alla prima, working with wet layers of paint instead of letting them dry. She keeps the paint as wet as possible by using walnut and clove oil...

Artist Comments
Artist Mary Pratt paints a surreal expressionist habitat surrounding a brightly colored bird perched on a branch. She believes birds are earthly showstoppers and captures them as such. These animals enhance our lives by encouraging us to pause and observe. "Oh look, there goes a beautiful bird—I always stop to look," says Mary.

About the Artist
Mary Pratt, a Georgia...

Artist Comments
Artist Jeff Fleming describes his painting style as kinetic impressionism. In this piece, a beagle triumphantly retrieves a stick thrown into the ocean. Jeff started the piece with a pencil sketch on the canvas, then with gloved hands, he applied oil paint using his fingers. Details were later added using brushes. Once these layers of paint dried, he moved the piece to his studio floor. "At this point, I whisked paint in random but authoritative strokes - a speckling technique which replicates water splashing."

About the Artist
Artist Jeff Fleming uses fingerpainting to create exuberant portraits of dogs. Growing up in Southern California, Jeff was first introduced to fingerpainting in kindergarten. He painted through high school and college and won several art awards, including Best of Show in a city wide student competition. After graduating with a degree in journalism and advertising, he went to work as an art director. For the next 40 years, he created print, radio and television ads for a number of top agencies. "After retiring in 2019, the clouds of stress and pressure cleared and allowed me to set my creative energy free," says Jeff. He began developing new techniques focused on the excitement and energy of painting. Today, he uses a variety of methods and tools, including fingerpainting wearing nitrile gloves, traditional paint brushes, bamboo shish kebab sticks, kite string, spraypaint and splattering. While working, Jeff always listens to music, including Broadway musicals, dance music and rhythmic Hawaiian tunes.

Words that describe this painting: beagle, dog, pet, impressionism, Iris Scott...

Artist Comments
"I had to have my roof replaced last year and to my dismay, a cardinal couple had made a nest on a tree limb that would have been in the way of the roofers taking off old shingles," shares artist Judy Mackey...

Artist Comments
"This is a loosely painted scene based on a visit to a ranch in Stanley, New Mexico," shares artist Heather Foster. "I think they thought I was going to feed them. Sometimes a group of cattle will see me and run away like they imagine I'm thinking about burgers. But this group was curious and started towards me, with the ones in the distance moving at a quick pace, worried that they might miss out on something. Then we just paused & looked at each other for a bit." Heather captured the moment with her painting vividly portraying the scene. The cattle stand with inquisitive gazes before her. A bright underpainting shows through exemplifying the heat of the day and the amusing instance.

About the Artist
Artist Heather Foster captures an enduring image of the West. She paints the dramatic landscapes and stalwart animals she encounters on her adventures to ranches and rodeos. Heather says she has always known she wanted to be an artist. As a child, she spent her weekends and summers riding the bus into Philadelphia to attend art classes at Philadelphia College of Art, Moore College of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Over the years, she's moved around the country quite a bit and done many jobs - everything from driving a pedicab (a giant tricycle that transports passengers) to art restoration and conservation (for one project, she unstretched and then restretched a $17 million painting that would not fit through the door of the buyer's house). The one constant though, no matter where she lived or what side jobs she held, she always made space and time to paint. Today, she works from a home studio in Santa Fe, painting from thousands of reference photographs she shoots on her travels. Her artwork has been featured in the magazines Southwest Art, American Art Collector, and Western Art Collector, and published in the books Art Journey New Mexico and The Book of the Horse.

Words that describe this painting: ranch, cattle, cow, herd, animal, western, country, countryside, panoramic, New Mexico, impressionism, animals, landscape, western, acrylic painting, purple

Gathering on the Plains...

Artist Comments
"There is that point when kids are looking grown but at the same time still look like the young kids that they are," muses artist Heather Foster. "This guy wa...

Artist Comments
Artist Sally Adams paints a lone brown horse on a verdant landscape. She draws inspiration from the wild ponies on the islands off ...

Artist Comments
Artist Kira Yustak blends impressionist and primitive approaches in her portrait of a blackbird amongst tall cattails. She draws inspiration from observing them in waterways and marshy areas nearby. Kira paints it larger than life to highlight the feathers and make a bold statement. Her style bears influence from natural history illustrations...

Artist Comments
"This girl was posing for me on a trip to visit a ranch in Pagosa Springs, Colorado," shares artist Heather Foster. "She looked, to me, as if she was wearing black knee socks...

Artist Comments
"This is a calf from a herd I met in Pagosa Springs, Colorado," shares artist Heather Foster. "I wanted the bold underpainting to show through and give a dist...