Welcome to my pencil pet portrait of Henri Bell. This commission was very special for me. I was able to work with a very well known actress here in the UK called Meg Johnson. Meg and her family sadly lost their gorgeous dog Henri Bell at the age of 18 after having rescued him at aged 1yr.
Meg got in touch as she wanted to commission a surprise portrait for her husband. Although she did admit that the portrait was for her too! Meg described Henri as a ‘bossy little whatsit!’ who loved his family and was a fierce little guard dog who wasn’t keen on window cleaners or cats. Even when he went blind he still knew when there were there!!
The Portrait for Meg Johnson
I was lucky enough to speak to Meg on the phone and we chatted for quite a while. I have to say, I had no clue who she was while I was speaking to her. Her voice was amazing and she was regaling me with lots of amazing stories. I happened to ask what she did for a living and she said that she was a stage actress and she loved theatre. She didn’t actually say at the time she was in Coronation Street, Emmerdale or Brookside!! However I was just enamoured by her lovely voice, the way she was speaking and how she put me at such ease while talking to her. I could quite easily have sat with her and had a cuppa and chatted the day away.
Of course when I came off the phone… once we had arranged the portrait of course, I had to look Meg up online. I was amazed that she had been in so many famous tv programs over the years. Nichoals’s mother was quite jealous that I had got to speak to her. Plus that I was doing a portrait for her, as she loves all the soaps! I’m actually glad I didn’t know who she was, as this meant that I could chat to her in my normal way and not get tongue tied.
The Portrait of Henri Bell
Once the portrait of Henri-Bell was complete, I spoke to Meg on the phone again. She thanked me personally for creating the portrait for her. I wish I had been able to meet Meg Johnson in real life…however speaking on the telephone was the next best thing! I hope that you all like my pencil pet portrait of Henri Bell too! If you would like to commission a pencil drawing of your dog, please head over to my website. You can contact me from there at anytime. If you would like to read about my next commission, you can take a look at it on my blog post. It was was equally as exciting, two cats for cat food packaging here in the UK!
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