I always thought of my yellow lab Albert as a handsome dog. Every now and then, however, he seems to strike a pose or the lighting is just right. I catch myself looking at him like he is a painting!

On one of the first sunny Sunday mornings that we’d had in a while, I found myself sitting in the grass with Albert. The sunlight was so strong and the colors seemed so intense. I knew it was time for another dog portrait!

Capturing all the colors I was seeing and a feeling of the light was my goal for this gouache painting.

For this painting, I used the gouache in an impressionistic manner — one stroke of opaque color being layered on top of or next to another. Allowing the colors to mix optically creates a sense of luminosity that would be tough to create any other way.