How cool is this portrait of Stan.
Last summer we went up to Shropshire to visit my family. We spent one night in Mellington Hall, a gothic hotel in the middle of nowhere.
It was lovely and we really loved our visit there, which just so happened to coincide with my birthday.
Stan could not stay at the hotel so we found a kennels which is fairly local to both the hotel and my dad's place, so Stan stayed there for the night. The alternative was drive to Shropshire spend the night in the hotel and then drive home again the next day to pick Stan up and then going back to where we had came from.
Adding an extra 300 miles plus travelling time to our holiday.
So it was easier to put Stan in a kennel overnight.
John and Gerry who own Brooklyn kennels were lovely and it turned out John is an animal portrait painter. He took some photo's of Stan during his stay and painted this portrait of him on slate from the photo's he had taken. Alan was so chuffed he wanted me to buy him the slate for Christmas. So today we went up to Shropshire to pick it up, even though we are both still recovering from a flu type virus. Of course we called in on my dad too.
This is so Stan!!! John seems to have captured Stan's looks, personality and his very essence completely. John is so, so talented.
I do hope he doesn't mind me showing his work on my blog. I want to hang it on the wall now, but at 1.45 am ....I think I may upset the neighbours if I get the drill out now.
Click here to go to kennels and view more of John's painting and find details of the kennels just in case you need a kennel or cattery in that area or perhaps you would like John to paint your pooch.