Sally Logue - Animal Portrait Artist
Eden artist celebrates 20 years of portraiture
by Fiona Exon
Pet portrait artist Sally Logue from Kirkoswald is celebrating 20 years of capturing the personality of many beloved pets in her hand drawn portraits.
Sally's portraits have become treasured family heirlooms for many people, a lot of whom return often for more portraits. Her work is delicate and sensitive. Her eye for detail allows her to create an excellent likeness, capturing the spirit of her subjects.
For Sally customer satisfaction is paramount. “It is very emotional seeing the joy that a portrait can give, people really do love their pets” , she says. “I have often seen clients with tears in their eyes when they see the likeness. It's rewarding to know I've got it right.'' Looking through Sally's on-line feedback, the words ‘'captured'' and ‘'likeness'' and ‘'absolutely'' appear frequently.
A portrait starts with drawing the eyes, as Sally explains, “It's important to get eyes just right. I usually start with a rough outline of the head and then work from the eyes outwards. Eyes really are the ‘windows to the soul',” she says.
Over two decades Sally, whose own much-loved dog Roxy's portrait has pride of place in her lounge, has undertaken hundreds of commissions from throughout the world through her website Portraits4Pets.com
Sally studied Art at Trent, Nottingham, graduating with a BA (hon's) in Textile Design. She then went on to do a Post Graduate Certificate in Education before teaching Art to A' level.
Like some other small businesses Sally's work as a Pet Portrait Artist began almost by accident. Her husband, when they first met in 1991, asked her to draw something for a picture frame he had and she drew his dog, Carrie. Friends who saw the portrait asked for a portrait of their own pets and by the time Sally gave up her job as Head of Art at Lime House School, Dalston in 1993, she was already taking commissions at local shows.
Since 2002, with both children in school, she has worked as a Pet Portrait Artist. She also draws people and produces life-like pictures of people with their pets. Numerous other animal portraits include farm animals, small pets, birds and even a salmon!
Exciting projects have included a series of Sally's dog portraits being used by the New Zealand Mint on Commemorative Coins to mark the Chinese Year of the Dog. She was also commissioned by RSPCA Freedom Food to undertake a large farm animal portrait to mark the 15th anniversary of the Freedom Food scheme.
Her designs have been used by Chelsea Textiles in the production of hand stitched tapestry cushions and her designs have been printed on a range of pet gifts sold throughout the USA.
The producers of ITV's ‘60 Minute Makeover' commissioned a pet portrait of Alfie, a Schnauzer, for a house makeover in Hailsham.
Sally was interviewed by The Guardian newspaper for an article based on the success of her online business and filmed in her studio drawing for a BBC2 TV series ‘Get Webwise for Business' . An article in the Daily Mail featured Sally's clients with their Pet Portraits and Dogs. Barbara Gott and Liz Kretschmer were interviewed about their portraits and photographed with their dogs ‘Benji ‘and ‘Tara' She was delighted to be nominated for the Excellence in Cumbria Awards as runner-up in the category 'Business Woman of the Year'.
As part of her 20 th anniversary celebrations, and with the help of an EDC Marketing Grant, Sally has redesigned her innovative website. The website includes galleries of her drawings and customer feedback. The site allows customers to preview their artwork online before parting with their cash.
Sally has her annual exhibition at Lowther Show and looks forward to meeting up with new and previous ‘subjects' and, of course, their owners!