A Very Warm Welcome to our pet portraits commissions in oil & pencil. We are professionally trained pet portrait artists creating high end portraits of dogs, cats and horses. My name is Melanie and I work alongside my husband Nicholas in our beautiful art studio nestled in our gorgeous woodland garden in the UK.
We are not on social media, our work on this website is all the advertising we need. When you choose us, you are getting a piece of art made by two artists who absolutely love painting and drawing pets. I (Melanie) draw all of the black and white pencil drawings and Nicholas paints all of the oil paintings using traditional methods.
We have been pet portrait artists since way back when the internet was just getting started (yes, we were there!). For over 27 years, we have been pouring our hearts into developing our techniques and capturing people’s pets.
Keeping things simple and refined. We spend our time creating exceptional portraits in pencil and oil. You can be confident that we can provide a portrait and level of service both you and your pet deserve.
Looking to commission a portrait of your pet?
Visit our Commissions Information Page for details on prices and sizes for our pet portraits in oils and pencil.
Visit our Latest Pet Portraits Gallery to view some of our most recent commissioned pet portraits. We select some of our favourite portraits, so you can keep checking back monthly to see what's new!
Visit my Pencil Pet Portraits Drawing Gallery to see some of my (Melanie's) pencil drawings including the portrait below. I create original hand drawn portraits for clients all over the world based on your favourite photos of your pet.
View our Cat Oil Painting Gallery to see a beautiful range of cat portraits by Nicholas. Read about the commissions and the portraits along with viewing the reference photos and how the portraits develop.
View some of the beautiful oil portraits of dogs, that Nicholas has created in our hand painted Dog Oil Portraits Gallery. Unique 'one off' commissions from clients all over the world.
If you are looking to commission a horse oil portrait, you have come to the right place! As you can see from the horse portrait of Ellie below, Nicholas' portraits are highly detailed and realistic, however still retaining that all important painterly feel. Visit our Horse Oil Portraits Gallery to see more amazing horse portraits.
Visit our Pet Portraits Artwork Photo Comparison page to view a selection of artwork 'side by side' along with the photos we worked from. Its our job to capture 'your pet' ....not just any pet and we hope this explains a little more about what we can do. As you can see from the portrait below, we have taken Gabby from the car setting, placed her on a rug with warmer natural colours and added her favourite toy in the scene too. Visit our page to see more commissions and read about what we can do!
We were approached by the actor John Nettles in 2024 to create an oil painting of his granddaughter’s dog, Milo. John shared with us a unique photograph of Milo, captured on the rare occasion that Jersey was covered under a blanketed of snow. We are thrilled to have captured this moment in an oil portrait and you can read more aboout the commission on the dedicated blog post here - Oil Painting for Actor John Nettles
Chatting over the years with our clients, we hear time and time again that they have been looking for someone special for a long time to paint their pets. When the stumble upon our website, they are so pleased that they have finally found what they have been looking for! This is apparent when we recieve amazing emails from cleints when they recieve their artwork. Visit our Pet Portraits Testimonials page to view some amazing photos clients have sent us of themselves with their portraits.
"Ems reaction was better than I expected! I gave it to her during my speech! She absolutley adored it and its now proudly hanging up in the house. "
— James
"Thanks for giving us such an amazing gift. I can’t stop looking at it. My baby is back with me. So glad I found you 💜❤️💜❤️💜❤️💜
Thanks Melanie! I will never forget your kindness, support and understanding 💜❤️💜"
— Minoo
"Melanie!!! My heart ♥️ just drops when I look at the painting. Roy and I are so very pleased with the outcome, it is everything we could hope for.Nicholas has captured the “love” in her eyes for Logan, which is the essence of the painting. Just Excellent!"
— Janice Tilghman
We have a lovely old Welsh cottage and a garden studio set in an idyllic rural scene. Clients are always welcome to visit along with their pets to be photographed by apointment. Visit our about us page to find more about both Nicholas and myself, our Welsh Cottage and Garden, along with our Art Studio and seeing it inside with our art materials too. We hope you enjoy your perusal around our little corner of the world.
Every pet portrait we create is thoughtfully packaged to make the unboxing experience just as memorable as the artwork itself. Each portrait is carefully wrapped in delicate tissue paper, placed in a custom gift box, and finished with a beautiful ribbon.
"Going into this process felt a bit overwhelming. Starting from scratch and trying to find someone who could give us what we wanted seemed like an impossible task at first.
I saw so many dog portraits online that were a little too impressionistic, or seemed to not accurately represent the animal they portrayed. I dreaded sending off pictures to an artist and getting back an expensive painting that looked nothing like my dogsters.
The reality of the process with Melanie and Nicholas was a dream. They were so careful, thoughtful, and responsive along the way. They worked hard to make sure that we knew what we were getting and were going to be happy with it. They collaborated with us on the source material and allowed us to track each step of the creation once it began. There was no opportunity for unwelcome surprises given the diligence of their process.
We are so happy with our choice. We wanted the best and that’s what we got....."
— Nicole Poteat
"Pure genius, talent such as that possessed by Nicholas and yourself should be treasured. Chester and Minnie have been captured in a way that we could only have hoped for but perhaps never really expected.
I wish that you both knew our dogs because only then could you really appreciate how accurately they have been portrayed. I could go on and on but it's easier to simply say 'we're delighted'.
I shall be recommending you both to just about everyone with an animal. Perhaps somewhat oddly, I will continue to read your blog even though the pictures are finished. I'd really miss it if I didn't."
— Carl Cooper
Send us your favourite photo and we will create you a unique, one of a kind portrait to your specification...all delivered safely to your door. If you would like to commission a pet portrait from either myself or Nicholas, please drop us an email or message us via WhatsApp or Messenger at anytime!