Portrait of a Wedding

This recent pencil portrait was commissioned by a friend of the couple's children to celebrate their wedding day. Also as a loving tribute to the groom, who sadly was terminally ill at the time of the wedding. As such, it was quite an emotional piece to be involved in and I felt a weight of responsibility to do the photo and occasion justice. 

What I hope comes through is the happiness and affection from the day caught in the original photograph.

To commission a pencil portrait or to see more of my work, please visit artbylukebennett.com.

My Lovely Horse

Anyone familiar with Father Ted will be well aware of the song I had stuck in my head for a significant part of this painting...

Whilst, not being my horse, this was my first horse painting. That I can remember... I may well have painted a horse as a child in a very rudimentary fashion, given my love of cowboy films at a young age, but this has been my first horse painting as an adult. It's certainly my first pet portrait commission to feature three different animals in one scene. And a landscape.

For those reasons, it has in some ways been one of my most challenging commissions so far, and the most rewarding.

My customer wanted to surprise their loved one with a special birthday present featuring all three pets. However, there were no usable photos with all three animals in the one shot. I had to use a little artistic license therefore to produce a composite image. This license continued with the landscape, which I felt might look quite cool with a more stylistic interpretation.

Horse portrait

Horse and dogs portrait

Pet Portraits by Luke Bennett

I really enjoyed creating this piece, particularly painting the horse, as it was pretty new to me. I applied a fairly heavy gloss at the end as it seemed to suit the scene.

I received some genuinely lovely feedback too. As always, if you want to commission your own portrait - pet, human or otherwise - please do not hesitate to visit artbylukebennett.com and get in touch!