Whaddah year
When I held the first twitter portrait contest back in March of 2009, it wasn’t a portrait giveaway, per se. It was just a request for dog photos for a little painting experiment I was conducting. I wanted to see if I could paint a dog “study” in 140 minutes.
Just one of my new followers sent me a photo. Needless to say, he won.
But my experiment quickly morphed into a monthly custom dog portrait give away on twitter, resulting in 2300 followers, some nice press from my fav dog magazine, and a whole other portrait contest on the Bonnie Hunt Show. (Stay tuned for that!)
But there’s more
One of the best things that’s happened as a result of the contests is that winners have “paid the freebie forward,” per the contest rules which requires doing something nice for someone (or something) else. My wonderful winners have dontated to the ASPCA, given away custom artwork themselves, and even helped to raise funds for a rescue dog’s leg surgery.
And the other best thing is that I have made some great new friends I wouldn’t have met otherwise: friends with a wicked sense of humor and a love for animals as strong as my own. That’s worth 9 free paintings in my book. Heck, that’s worth 50.
So here’s a look back at all nine 2009 twitter portraits and winning photos. We’ll start with Makai, the first portrait winner, and end with Tallulah, who’s portrait’s coming soon!
Enjoy.
Thanks as always for reading. Hope you are enjoying the fresh slate of the new year!
And every day for that matter…
-Aimée
Visit the online gallery at www.aimeehoover.com
Every single painting is just stunning! You do beautiful work!
Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch
That was the quickest comment ever! Thanks & happy ny. : )
Love, love, love this post! It’s great to see all the portraits together and especially to see the side by sides with the photos. Thanks for putting this post together! Lovely as always!
PS I am so grateful to have one of these portraits for my very own–THANK YOU!
seriously- every one blows me away! it’s amazing how well you capture their personalities!
Happy New Year!! Gorgeous post- they are all beautiful! You do amazing work and I am so grateful to have one of your beautiful pieces of art 🙂 Thank you (again!)
love love love this!
I love the way you captured each dogs personality.
OOOOH! I’m getting so excited again! Can’t wait to see my Tallulah up there! I love seeing the side by sides. Everyone is spot on! Such beautiful work! I’m thinking of my “pay it forward”! Thanks again for doing such a coll generous thing! Happy New Year!
Aimee, Those are beautiful! Love the pay it forward idea. It gives the dog owner some responsability but yet allows for their creativity. Rock on!