| | | | Gundog : the English Springer Spaniel | | | When I started painting in 1997, the elder artists told me stories about a famous collector who used to come to the opening of the Paris Country Show, to buy the best paintings. He used to buy a lot. One of my friends who used to huntwith him, proposed to introduce me to this collector if I gave her 15% of all the business I would make with him."No thanks", I answered, "the day this man sees my paintings, he will become my best client".
I didn't see him at my first show in 1997, not even at the second one, one year later. When I exhibited my very first gundog paintings in 99, a man spent a long time looking at my dog portraits, and then told me: "it's too bad, I just gave a commission for the portrait of my Springer Spaniel to one of your fellow artists, 10 minutes ago. Next time, I shall choose you." When he signed my guest-book, I knew I had won my bet and that the Collector was one of my fans. Alain D. soon became a good client and finally gave me a commission to paint his favourite English Springer Spaniel. | |  | Detail of the English Springer Spaniel Painting
Let me show you at first a detail of this painting. If you are don't like it, don't go further.
You can see the signature in the medal..
For fun, I wrote : "Cyrille Jubert's fan"
This painting was reproduce in the magazine "Shooting gun" in july 2005
and someone came to see me at the cla Game Fair, to have his Springer painted the same way. You'll see this new portrait soon. |  | | | | When Alain prepares his equipment to go shooting the next day, his English springer spaniel, "Sweep", lies among the luggage, his head resting on the gun's bag, to make sure he won't be left behind. Alain, who had English Springers all his life, never saw any of his gundogs do this. So, he wanted his pet painted like that. It was his only request. Besides that, like a real art collector, used to dealing with artists, he gave me a free hand.
In each of my previous "dog paintings", I tried to show an interesting armchair in the picture. It allows me to hang clothes on the arm, to put objects on the seat, and it gives a vertical dimension, while enriching the scenery.
A few weeks before, I met an antiques merchant, who had a pair of armchairs from Central Europe, made with deer and buck horns. They were very interesting, perfect for a sporting painting and a wink to Alain, who is one of the most conspicuous huntsmen in France. I borrowed one of the armchairs and brought it to Alain's house in the forest of Compiegne, to take a few photos. Slide your mouse on the painting to see the reference photo. Here is this curious armchair. The seat and back are covered with buck fur.
Kitschy, isn't it ?  but original and fun to paint ! As you can see on the reference photo (underneath), the artist had to prove his imagination. Try to find all the difference between the photo and the painting.
| | | | As the room was very dark, my photos taken without a flash were horrible but those with a flash were worse. I had to go back on a sunny day to take photos of the dog and the bag outside in the sunshine. I went on a saturday afternoon. Alain had played golf in the morning, with his English Springer Spaniel and the dog was so tired, that I had a very hard time taking a single photo with his eyes open.
So, dear fan, who intends to give me a commission soon, never let your dog play golf when I'm on the way to take photos of him. Great photo, isn't it ?
But far from being perfect for me. While taking the snapshot, I didn't notice that the cap was so, hiding Alain's hunting "tiepin" and his sporting club badges.
The gun bag didn't have the same position that on the above photo and the dog's body couldn't match either in the previous stage.
It gave me headaches for days trying to match all these details in one drawing. While you 're here, have a closer look to the grain of the calf leather. | | | | | | When I started this painting, I had a great contact with an American agent, who launched an hyper realist wildlife painter who is now a super-star. She visited my exhibition in Brussels, examinating my paintings with a sharp professional eye. On one of the paintings, she found a fault on the back leg of one of the six dogs. I decided to paint this picture especially for her eyes, giving the best of my know-how, so she could-n't say anything else than "Bravo".
The whole painting took more than 3 months, the bag itself took 15 days.. It 's perhap's the craziest work I've ever painted. | | | | | I don't want to bother you...
I have very close details, showing an enlarged image of the interlaced thread of the seam ...
Does it really bother you ? mmmmm ?
I'm so proud of my work, let's have a quick glance
|  | | | I don't want to bother you...
I have closer details, showing an enlarged image of the braiding of the thread .
No. that's a joke too..
Believe me : it 's a great job !
Always say good things about yourself, people will repeat it
and everyone will forget who said it first
You may say good things too, I love it !
|  | | |  | On the right, a new painting "pets in a garden"
with of course, its story
follow the guide
On the left, a previous Springer portrait |  | | | | |
|
