Wirral-based Adam Bresnen is no stranger to man’s best friend – he paints them for a living. Rebekka O’Grady visits the artist to find out more.
Portrait artist Adam Bresnen assured me that his dog David doesn’t get jealous when he catches him painting other animals.
‘No, he’s fine,’ laughed Adam, who has been drawing and painting pets for a number of years. ‘I got David seven years ago; he’s a mix of a French bulldog and pug. I had already been painting portraits of people but I began to paint animals.’
The artist, who lives in Wallasey, told me he started in portraiture as he wanted to make art look as it would in real life. The movement into dog portraits initially stemmed from painting David, before a natural progression and interest to capture each animal’s individual personality. People began asking Adam to draw their dogs, and the venture has proved popular so far.
This is not surprising when you look at his work. The sheer detail, careful brushstrokes and sketches almost makes the animals jump off the canvas, or their puppy dog eyes follow you around a room.
‘Since I was a child and at school, art was the only thing I was good at. I much preferred it to the academic side of things. I was lucky that when I was in secondary school, my art teacher was also my form teacher so he supported me right the way through.’
Despite his passion for the subject, Adam has since flittered in between the craft and his work as a musician and songwriter. The two subjects had never parallel with each other until now, where the 31-year-old splits his week between being an artist, and musician with his band, Veyu.
‘It’s the best of both worlds, but the portraiture is something I would love to move into full time now and continue to grow as a business. Although I like drawing the animals, I also enjoy normal portraits and even landscapes. The weirdest request I have had so far was to draw someone as a werewolf – it was definitely something different to do!’
So how long does it take Adam to complete a portrait of your four-legged best friend? It all depends on the individual dog. Once you have submitted a perfect photograph to work from (full tips and tricks are listed on Adam’s website), Adam then discusses exactly what the owner wants.
‘Each job is bespoke and all are done differently, depending upon what the client wants. We can talk about colours and size, and what material they want the portrait done in. At the moment I’ve been using pastel pencils and charcoal, and for larger portraits I’ve used acrylic and oils.’
Adam is not only talented at portraiture, but over the past four years he has also been asked to create fairground murals, including one at Adventureland in New Brighton.
‘I enjoy that side of things as it’s something a bit different. I can go a bit bolder and use bigger brush strokes on 100ft walls! It’s a great contrast to the smaller detailed designs I‘m normally doing at home.’
