Seeing Spot: SPI artist unleashes career painting dogs

Diesel looks up sadly next to an empty box of dog biscuits; nearby, another painting depicts the basset hound, fur audacious and orange, wearing a headband with red hearts poking out like antennae. A thought bubble illustrates a tasty bone hovering above his yearning eyes.

Painting dog portraits didn't seem like a profit-making venture to South Padre Island artist Chelsea Fedigan until she decided four or five years ago to create a picture of her beloved Diesel - whom she'd adopted from Lone Star Basset Rescue in Houston. The doggie portrait sold quickly at Rio Fest in Harlingen.

"I guess I was just shocked," said Fedigan, 30, who uses acrylics in her work. "I just painted it for me. ... I didn't realize people were going to buy dog art."

Until that serendipitous discovery, she was still struggling to uncover her niche as an artist, having studied at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College and the Art Institute of Houston.

But that chance encounter led to an intriguing and profitable career that has filled her condominium with portraits of man's best friend: a noble Afghan hound with a purple snout and gleaming golden hair; a jaunty brown French Chihuahua; a nervous Chinese crested hairless named Miss Piggy, with a purple body and yellow hair sticking out punkily around her head.

Fedigan's camera is always with her, so she can get snapshots of dogs with personality.

"I do a lot of commissions for people who send their dogs' photos, and I paint them," said Fedigan, dressed in jeans and a lime-tinged top embroidered with a peacock and flowers.

"I have done some memorials where dogs have passed away," she said more reflectively.

The living room of her condo serves as her studio: Sparky the leopard gecko lounges beneath her TV next to her DVD collection and books about Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol; the Pop Art style of both contemporary masters commands a strong influence on her work.

A black, wheeled cabinet cluttered with brushes and tubes of paint sits near her painting spot; several paintings in mid-process resting on her easel, one of them narrating in her visual language a Shih Tzu with hues struggling between light pink, mauve and fuschia. Brown eyes with a trace of purple gaze wondrously from the painting.

"That's one of my Mom's dogs," Fedigan said. "It mainly needs touching up, outlining."

Her mother, herself an artist who translates marine life into the dialect of watercolors, motivated her to pursue art.

"We always did art projects together as a way of bonding, all sorts of stuff," Fedigan said. "I always followed in her footsteps. We're always critiquing each other's art."

Lucy, a Dachshund Fedigan rescued a few months ago, lacks the patience to sit very long, even for a photograph, but she did manage her way onto a small canvas displayed on the easel; it's a painting that includes Sammy, a teal green cat with mystical lime green eyes.

Of course, the star of Fedigan's art exhibit in her home is Diesel, her beloved basset hound. In one portrait he sports a pirate hat with skull and crossbones. In another, he wears deer antlers, and still another has him crouching on the floor and howling at the viewer.

"He's a rescue and he was starving, so he will pretty much do anything for a treat, anything with peanut butter and Frosty Paws (frozen canine treats)," said Fedigan, pushing her short, glistening blonde hair from her face to reveal her eager smile.

"I love my dogs," she said with thoughtful passion. "That makes me happy. Usually when I'm painting them, that's what's going through my head. I want someone to appreciate the art, and also the image of their dogs.

"I love bright colors. I love painting, so I combine what I enjoy. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have art as a release," she said.

WEBSITE FOR CHELSEA FEDIGAN'S ART: www.CHACHASART.COM