Capturing the essence of your ‘best friend’

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

Whether furry, feathered, or scaled, almost anyone you speak to can recall that one pet they will never forget.

“People love their pets and I love to draw, so I thought, let’s try this out,” said Kirkland resident and entrepreneur Lori Oness,

who commemorates people’s best friends through watercolour portraits.

Oness, who is also an art model and ESL (English Second Language) teacher, added “pet groomer” to her resume last July as well. Within a few months, she realized the animals could pose as perfect subjects for her watercolour paintings, and began creating custom portraits for proud pet owners.

“Art has always been in my life, since even before kindergarten,” said Oness, adding her studies of human anatomy and physiology at Concordia University really lead her to appreciate the human form. An accomplished sculptor and avid sketcher, Oness says the extreme dry brush watercolour technique, which she learnt from West Island artist and teacher Peter Law, is perfect for bringing out the small features that really reveal an animal’s personality.

“I love deep, rich, passionate colours. And I found that traditional watercolours were a bit too faded,” she said. The dry brush technique uses more pigment, which is applied in a variety of strokes. The technique is excellent for achieving realistic detail in the animal’s fur and facial features, for example.

“That’s what absolutely captures the individual essence of the pet,” Oness said, adding dry brush watercolour is a lot like sketching with pencil and charcoal. “It’s all about shading, shadow and light, and the same principle applies to watercolours.”

To make sure she really captures the pet’s personality, Oness likes to meet the animal first, and then, for practical reasons, works from photographs.

“I have to see who I’m working with,” she said, adding that if a meeting is not possible for one reason or another, she can work from pictures and plenty of research into the breed’s characteristics as well.

Either way, Oness said she prides herself on really showing the individuality and character of people’s pets, making sure her customers have no doubt the animal in the portrait is theirs.

“I want you to say, oh my gosh, that’s Fluffy, or that’s Spot,” Oness said. “People get so attached to their pets, and I pride myself on capturing their personality.”

Lori Oness can be reached at 514-695-1306 or by e-mail at lori.oness056@sympatico.ca.