2026 Trekell Pet Portrait Competition entry

 This portrait of one of Muscovy ducks is my entry for this year's Trekell Pet Portrait Competition.  This competition requires artists to use a special shaped birch panel as the support.  I was relieved the shape of this year's panel was simpler than in previous years, and I felt I could paint what I wanted and not worry too much about how the shape affects the composition.

 The Muscovy is named Laguna.  She is a rather special duck as she has heterochromia - both of her eyes are blue and brown!  She loves her baths, of course, and I wanted to capture her contentedly preening after a bath with water beading up on her waterproofed feathers.  I hope others who see this painting feel the peace I feel when I watch my birds preen.

Two mixed media pieces from this year

It hasn't been the most productive year for me as far as art goes, but I've still been making some art.  Here are a couple experimental mixed media pieces I drew this past year.

This portrait of my bearded dragon, Zuri, was done on a 10" X 7" retro boomerang birch panel by Trekell.  I had the perfect image of Zuri and her long shadow to fit in this unique shape.  The small size called for very small marks which I decided to do in colored pencil over an acrylic paint base.  I'm digging the interesting texture it created.

This kitten is named Mittens and I drew him for an online art swap.  I used a little bit of everything in this drawing - acrylic paint markers, watercolors, colored pencils, and India ink pens.

Some more shots of these two pieces.