About the Artist
About The Artist
Pet Portraits By Jonathan Watson
Born in Staffordshire and now married and living in Leicestershire, I am a watercolour artist specialising in Pet Portraits and watercolour landscapes.
I have over 35 years experience, having started painting at a very early age & have been painting portraits of peoples cats, dogs and horses for over 20 years. I also paint watercolour landscapes, especially sunsets and I am regularly out and about with my camera seeking inspiration.
I trained in Graphic Design, and this gave me the fine attention to detail and eye for perfection that I bring to all my paintings and commissions.
Being an animal lover and owner myself, I know that your pet is a very special part of your life and member of your family, and I strive to capture each unique character of it in every pet portrait that I paint.
Adding the fine detail to "Blue", an Australian Shepherd
Putting the final touches to "Cooper" the Basset Hound
At work in the Studio, sketching out a Pet Portrait ready for painting.
Pet portraits are my passion, and having owned dogs most of my life I understand how much our pets mean to us, they are an integral part of our life and I would love to be able to create a lasting memory of your pet. You can find examples of some of my previous commissions on the Gallery
page.
Pet portraits are perhaps the most fitting way to celebrate the influence that the special animal in your life has on everything you do. You may wish to have a pet portrait produced as an original piece of art for your home, or you may prefer to give a portrait as a gift to a loved one. You can guarantee your commission will have hours of care and attention put in to creating them and will capture a true likeness to your pet.
From a very early age I always had a love of drawing - I was told that as a child, wherever we went, I would be quiet and content as long as i had a pencil in my hand. I can remember sitting for hours copying superheroes from comics and this was years and years before Stan Lee and Marvel became household names, so I always dreamt that one day I would be an illustrator or artist.
As I was growing up art was always my passion and my hobby, and I moved on from drawing to painting with pastels and watercolours and below are three of my early watercolours from over 25 years ago. It was only natural that I studied art at school through both ‘O’ level and ‘A’ level and I then studied Graphic Design at Newcastle Art College.
A few examples of my early work
"Autumn on the River Trent"
- One of my very early watercolours of the river Trent in Burton, I love autumn scenes - the range of colours are so enticing for an artist to paint.
"Bass Shire Horses"
- This was one of my early ventures into painting animals, The original was bought by the boss of the company my Dad worked worked for and I produced a set of limited edition prints from it that sold out - one of the advantages of growing up in a brewery town !
"Clovelly, Devon" - Another of my early watercolour paintings. As a family, we visited Devon lots of times when I was young and this was painted from a photo taken there.
I have been very lucky that my hobby was able to be turned into my profession, I spent 10 years travelling all over the UK selling my paintings and drawings and taking commissions for my pet portraits, and then had my own Gallery for 8 years. I see myself as a completely self taught artist because, although I studied art in various guises, I believe I was born with this talent and nobody ever really taught me “how to draw”, it just came naturally and the styles and techniques that I use now are entirely my own – such as picking up a pencil and drawing what I see in front of me – I do this the same way now as I first did over 35 years ago: by instinct. I always just draw what I feel and see from my subject, and my object is to capture the character and soul as well as the likeness of your pet.
When it comes to my pet portraits, I aim to keep you involved in the creative process throughout. If you prefer to wait and see a photo of the finished product rather than receiving regular updates then please let me know, I want you to be as involved as much or as little as you would like with the progress of your commission.
If you are interested in commissioning one of my pet portraits please contact me on 07828 765762 or email me jon@pawtraitsbyjon.co.uk.
In order to keep abreast of all news, exclusive offers, competitions and latest additions to my portfolio, follow my dedicated Facebook page, where you may also get the chance to win gift vouchers or even the odd free portrait! Also please take the time to read my blog
where you can read about the latest pet portraits I am working on at the time, and even get some tips on creating your own master piece!
Jonathan Watson - Watercolour Artist
Leicestershire, UK
email: jon@pawtraitsbyjon.co.uk
Tel: 07828 765762