How I started doing Animal Portraits

"Crunchie"

I began doing really detailed portraits of people's pets as a sort of reaction to something a friend of mine said about my artwork.
At the time I was painting abstracts in earnest and was convinced I was the next Mark Rothko. Colour and Expressive Power were all I cared about back then, I had renounced most material things and my partner and I lived very simply and got by with very little. My daily routine consisted of: get up, paint, eat something, paint, go for a walk, comeback and paint. It was a sort of compulsion.
A close friend who was somewhat of a traditionalist, kept remarking that he thought I painted Abstracts due to the fact that I couldn't draw. In order to prove him wrong, I secretly drew a portrait of his pet dog and presented the end result to him during a drinks party.
He became very emotional and shed a few tears: Not because the drawing was so awful I might add, but because people tend to love their pets sometimes more than their own children. And when presented with a sensitive and charismatic image of their little friend, they can often well-up.

An Early Faisal Khouja Abstract

I've never thought of a Pet Portrait as  being somehow "Low Art". This subject matter is laughed off by snobbish Art critics as not being serious work, but I couldn't disagree more. Any subject matter can be tackled and artistic sensitivity applied to deliver a moving or important piece. Is there a subject more important to a man than the thing he adores most in this crazy world? (his dog I mean, not his wife!)
I have always continued to take Animal Portrait commissions alongside my other projects. Not only because this has been my "Bread and Butter" income, but because it feels good to deliver a piece of work to a client that I know will appreciate the many hours I put in to each piece to build up a lifelike and characterful work.

A Portrait of Ratty (a very lively Field Spaniel)

Further examples of my portraits can currently be viewed here