Welcome to Melanie’s Monthly News in May. I thought i’d start the blog off this time with a video tour of our garden. It’s looking so lovely at the moment. The weather has been beautiful, hot and sunny…so we are…

Welcome to Melanie’s April monthly news and it is truly springtime in our cottage garden. The wood pigeons are cooing, the woodpecker has been tapping furiously, the Canada geese are flying over, we have seen the first swallow and the…

Welcome to another Melanie’s March Monthly News. Thankfully things are a little happier here. Dad is home from Spain and recovering well, the car is still poorly (read last months blog post to hear about big dent in door!) but…

Welcome to Melanie’s January & February News. Our Happy New Year 2023 blog post is long overdue this year. So much has happened in the last couple of months which is partly why I didn’t get time to do a…

Merry Christmas to Everyone – all of our clients, followers and prospective clients in 2023! Welcome to our last blog post of the year. Lily and I did a little Christmas message which you can play below. We hope that…

Welcome to Melanie’s November Monthly News…Christmas is just around the corner!! Both Nicholas and myself have been really busy in the studio this month and we are still beavering away! We have a few paintings and drawings that we are…

Welcome to Melanie’s October Monthly News with another update from here, both in and out of the studio. Nicholas and myself have been really busy finishing lots of portraits in pencils and oil. We aren’t really able to show very…

Welcome to Melanie’s September Monthly News where another month has completely flown by! Nicholas has been working on a surprise portrait which will will be able to share in the not too distance future. He has now begun a beautiful…

Welcome to Melanie’s August Monthly News, where another month has flown by. We hope that all of our readers are well and enjoying their summer (or winter) wherever you may be! We have had some wonderful weather this month, which…

Welcome to Melanie’s July Monthly News! We hope this months ramblings find you well and having enjoyed July as much as we have! It’s been a busy month as per usual and we have been out and about quite a…

Welcome to Melanie’s June Monthly News, and here we are in yet another month that has flown by. We have been busy in the studio, but have got out and about this month when the weather has allowed. We have…

Welcome to Melanie’s May Monthly News. Another month has flown by and we have been getting up to quite a lot this month, with a few days out, lots of running and plenty of portraits being created. The first portrait…

Welcome to Melanie’s April Monthly News. I cant quite believe I’m slightly more organised this month and the blog is actually coming out on time! Considering it has been a busy time with Nicholas having an April birthday to celebrate…

Welcome to our Melanie’s March Monthly News. We hope that everyone is keeping still safe and well. In some uncertain times, we hope our blog post this month will bring a smile. So we start with our poor Lily, although…

Welcome to Melanie’s February Monthly News, we hope that all of our readers and followers are all keeping well! Spring is on its way! We start this blog off with some beautiful daffodils from my dads garden. Daffodils always make…

Welcome to Melanie’s January Monthly News! This year is going as fast as the last one went! Other than the quick blog post showing our Christmas tree and decorated cottage, I haven’t made a blog post for two months. A…

Welcome to our festive blog post – a very Happy Christmas & Happy New Year to you all! We have had a busy couple of months with portraits and we are now taking some well deserved time to ourselves. The…

Boo! Welcome to Melanie’s October Monthly News and Happy Halloween to all! Well it’s safe to say Lily LOVES pumpkin!! My friend Jo and I carved my dads pumpkins this year, which were huge by the way, and Lily was…

Welcome to Melanie’s September Monthly News! We start off this month in a similar way to last month and talk about the Race For Life. I wanted to thank everyone for donating to my Race for Life donation page. Amazingly…

Welcome to Melanie’s August Monthly News and this month we are starting things off a little differently. A very dear friend of ours passed away on Sunday from Cancer. I am doing the race for life on September 12th and…

Welcome to Melanie’s July monthly news, the latest instalment in what we have been getting up to this month. The first piece of lovely news is that we have received a wonderful photo from one of our clients who received…

Welcome to Melanie’s June Monthly News and yet another month has flown by again. It seems to be going so fast this year. We have been incredibly busy in the garden again doing more renovations, out in the back garden…

Welcome to Melanie’s May Monthly News which will mostly comprise of the completion of our front garden renovations…at last! The photo below, even though a fairly old photo, shows the old stone wall well. It was once a lime washed…

Welcome to Melanie’s April Monthly News where we have been a little further afield this month. All thanks to the relaxing of restrictions, plus we have been pretty busy to boot too! Cute photos of Lily to start this months…

Welcome to Melanie’s March monthly news where we have still been in lockdown! No exciting photos as such this month as we haven’t been very far. The good news is thought we have just come out of lockdown in the…

Welcome to Melanie’s February Monthly News, in a month where we have had quite a lot of rain….! We had a deluge of about 3 days and nights of constant hard rain and it created a surge of water in…

Welcome to Melanie’s January Monthly News and another month has whizzed by. Well I say whizzed, we are still in lockdown and so haven’t really been anywhere exciting….. well anywhere really! Our weather has been pretty bad, we have survived…

Welcome to Melanie’s December Monthly News – the last blog of the year! I’m wring this on New Years Eve and I think if you ask most people today, they will surely say, let’s hope 2021 will be a better…

Welcome to Melanie’s November Monthly News. It has been a busy month, in fact the last 4 weeks have literally flown and it seems only a few days ago I sat down to write our October post. The winter is…

Welcome to Melanie’s October Monthly News! I gave the game away a little with the feature image didn’t I! Yes, we have had babies! It has been a very ‘eggciting’ time. Consequently out of the 6 eggs we had incubated,…

Welcome to Melanie’s September monthly news with a little run down of whats been happening here this month. The first piece of news is quite sad, one of my hens died and so Mrs Chortle is the one and only…

Welcome to Melanie’s August Monthly News about what we have been up to this month. Often here in Wales we have beautiful weather all the way up to August and then it seems to be somewhat of a washout. We…

Welcome to Melanie’s July monthly news, another month has flown by again and here we are with lots more photos and news. Lily and myself have still been doing our early morning trundles down the lane and have come across…

Welcome to Melanie’s June Monthly News! We hope that all of our readers are being able to stay well and healthy across the globe. Nicholas and myself are both fine here and still working hard. We are still pretty much…

Welcome to Melanie’s May Monthly News! And if there was ever a tongue twister that might be a good one! We are still in lockdown here in Wales. We can only go as far as 5 miles for recreational trips…

Welcome to Melanie’s April Monthly News. We usually add photos of our little jaunts and expeditions with Lily, but like most people all over the world, we haven’t been anywhere! The weather has been absolutely beautiful here though so instead,…

Welcome to Melanie’s March monthly news. Well all I can say is that this months news is nothing like any other month I have blogged about! What unprecedented times we are living in. To be truthful, our every day lives…

Welcome to Melanie’s February Monthly News. Well, February has been a stormy one! We have had winds, rain, more winds, more rain, hail, thunder and a lot more winds and rain. How crazy has it been this month weather wise…

Welcome to Melanie’s January Monthly News – Happy New Year 2020! We hope that you all had a lovely festive season and New Year. We are now in our 23rd year for our pet portraits business! This month has flown…

Welcome to Melanie’s December Monthly News! Merry Christmas to everyone! As you may have noticed we haven’t posted any artwork in the last couple of months. Mainly as most of it has been for surprise presents this Christmas. I will…

Welcome to Melanie’s November Monthly News. As you can probably imagine it has been very busy here in the studio with portraits for Christmas. However we did manage to get out and about for a couple of days in November.…

Happy Halloween to everyone for October 31st 2019! We love Halloween in our house. My dad grows pumpkins every year back at the smallholding where I grew up. He planted a massive patch this year and grew about 30, including…

Welcome to Melanie’s October News! It has been a busy month with lots of things happening. At the start of the month I had an odd headache bug, then as soon as I felt better, poorly Lily came down with…

Welcome to the Golden Retriever oil painting of H. Nicholas traditionally hand painted the portrait on Italian Linen canvas. Our client commissioned the painting as a Christmas surprise for his wife. We love it when clients get in early for their…

Welcome to my Pencil Drawing of Bramble. Commissioned by Richard for his wife birthday as a surprise. Framed using our Madison Slate frame. One of my favourite frames for my drawings as the blue slate colours work really well with…

Welcome to Melanie’s monthly news in September! Where has this month flow to?! I can’t believe it is October already. We are both pretty much fully booked for Christmas portraits, we haven’t even started to think about Christmas ourselves yet.…

Welcome to our latest Spaniel oil portrait of Millie. This portrait was completed in August however it wasn’t to be given to the recipient until September so we are just adding it to the blog now. Consequently, we are always…

Welcome to our most recent cat portraits in oils of Roly. He is a very handsome cat, painted for returning clients in Scotland by Nicholas. Kirstie commissioned the portrait as a gift for her husband’s birthday. Gordon was over the…

Welcome to Melanie’s August News! We hope that you enjoyed our last months news all about our roof renovations. If you haven’t already taken a peak, you can do here – June & July News. We are thrilled to say…

Welcome to my most exciting project of the year, the Ruffwear logo pet portrait commission. Andrew Geere, the CEO of Ruffwear, called me to discuss commissioning a pencil drawing earlier this year in April. The focus of the portrait would…

Welcome to our latest Spaniel Pet Portraits oil painting commission of a beautiful spaniel called ‘Kitty Little’ aka ‘Kitkat’! Our client Steve called our studio a few months ago to find out if Nicholas would be able to complete a portrait…

Welcome to the latest Golden Retriever Pet Portraits commission of dogs Monty and Mungo. Nicholas was commissioned by clients in Guernsey to paint their two beautiful dogs, one of which Monty, had sadly passed away. The portrait would serve as…

Welcome to Melanie’s June & July News! It has been extremely busy here in the last couple of months, hence why we didn’t have a blog newsletter last month. As you can see from the photos below we have been…

Welcome to our latest bespoke oil pet portraits commission. This portrait was commissioned by Jamie and Lubka Hallam of their two gorgeous dogs Bilbo and Mr Kipling. Jamie and Lubka requested a large oil painting of them sitting in their…

Welcome to my latest Cat Pencil Portrait of two cats called Archie and Roly. This portrait is for returning clients Kirstie and Gordon (UK). They previously commissioned a portrait of their beautiful cat Dudly who is sadly no longer with…

Katie Rampton (UK) commissioned a triple pencil drawing of their three dogs Winston, Alfie and Ziggy for her husbands birthday. She purchased a gift voucher so that Matthew could choose his own photos and design. Matthew was thrilled with his…

Welcome to Nicholas’ latest English Bull Dog Portrait in oils on canvas. Mark (USA) contacted us earlier this year to see if Nicholas could create an oil painting of his English Bull Dog with a more natural setting behind. The…

Greg Piske, USA, purchased one of our gift vouchers in December 2018 to give to his wife as a Christmas present. Jane was delighted and therefore sent us photos of their horses Finn and Mac for the oil painting. Nicholas…

Welcome to our Labradoodle pet portrait in oils by Nicholas Beall. This commission was a lovely one for Nicholas to work on. He very much enjoys the larger in depth paintings with full backgrounds however, he also enjoys creating the…

Welcome to Melanie’s May News which, this month has all been about ponds, frogs, toads, water snails, newts, bees and flowers! Oh and a naughty cat! The photo below shows what the pond looks like as of today! Sitting pretty…

Welcome to Nicholas’ latest oil pet portrait of Boo! Boo’s portrait is a 12 x 10 inches oil painting. Commissioned by Sienna, a lovely client in the UK, who we thoroughly enjoyed working with! We worked with closely with Sienna…

Welcome to my latest pencil pet portrait of Chloe! Returning client Bob commissioned the pencil pet portrait of Chloe. We have also actually met Bob and Jennifer! They came over to the UK visiting family and took a trip around…

Welcome to Melanie’s April News. What a difference 20 days makes! As you can see from the photo below of our front garden, at the start of April we had an unexpected snow flurry. Woke up to a light covering…

Welcome to Rusty’s Pencil Drawing! The portrait was a 20 x 16 inches drawing commissioned by a client in the USA. My client Verity took a number of photos of Rusty out in her garden on a sunny day from…

Welcome to our latest Cottage Oil Portrait with Stella. Our client Richard, had one particular favourite photo he wanted to use for the portrait. This was his dog Stella in their garden with their cottage in the background. Nicholas painted…

Welcome to the Pencil drawing of Ellie commissioned by returning client Jo and her family. I have been working with Jo’s family for a number of years. You might have recently seen the Cuddly Toy of Piggy drawing she commissioned…

Welcome to Melanie’s March News! We actually haven’t been anywhere of note this month. It’s all been about getting portraits completed for deadlines. However whilst we have been busy bees in our studio…the sun has shone outside in the garden…

Welcome to Freddie’s Dog Portrait in Oils on canvas. Our clients, her win the UK, wanted to have an oil painting at 14 x 11 inches. Vanessa and her family emailed two photos for Nicholas to use, one for the…

Welcome to my latest Alsatian Pencil Drawing of Nash. The portrait was hand drawn by myself for clients in North Carolina, USA. Mike wanted to have a large sized portrait, which also worked well for his breed of dog. Mike…

Welcome to the Oil Painting of Bob. Isn’t he gorgeous! Nicholas traditionally hand painted Bob at 16 x 12 inches. The painting is an on Italian linen canvas. It was painted for a lovely client here in Wales called Sharon.…

Welcome to Melanie’s February News! This month has flown by again. I cant quite believe we are at the end of February already. We have had a busy month, we have been to a few places although mainly detours when…

Welcome to my latest Vizsla pencil drawing of Kiwi. Catherine commissioned the portrait, who was a returning client. Very sadly Catherine’s good friend lost her young Vizsla, Kiwi, in a tragic car accident. Consequently the family were devastated. Catherine felt…

Welcome to Nicholas’ latest cat pet portraits in oil. Katie contacted us asking if we would be able to paint her cat Shelly in oils at 16 x 12 size. Katie has two photos of Shelly, one that wasn’t such…

Welcome to my latest Black Labrador portrait of Merry. Nicholas Williams commissioned the pencil drawing of Merry as a gift for his wife’s birthday. Nicholas took a few photos of Merry while out on a walk. Consequently, he managed to…

Welcome to our latest oil portrait of Blu, a gorgeous little dog commissioned by Jayne and her family. In actual fact Jaynes family purchased one of our Gift A Portrait Vouchers for Jaynes birthday. Jayne and her family sadly lost…

Welcome to Melanie’s January News! Its been a busy month with work, however we did manage to go to a few places this month. Starting with a favourite place of ours called Tenby. I have to say its best visited…

Welcome to our latest dog oil portrait of Spyder. Nicholas traditionally hand painted Spyder for clients Karen and her family in Ohio, USA. Karen’s husband took some beautiful photos of their dog Spyder specifically for a portrait. Karen initially asked…

Welcome to my first drawing of the year, a pencil pet portrait montage of Mikey. A lovely client in the USA commissioned the portrait of Mikey. Sadly Mikey passed away last year and so he felt that this Pencil Pet…

Welcome to our Black Labrador Oil Portrait which is the first oil painting of January! It was lovely to get back into the studio and start on the next batch of paintings and drawings. Drinda sadly lost Brhyer in 2018…

Welcome to our latest oil portrait commission of Leya and Jack. Matilde contacted us in 2018 to see if we would be able to create an oil portrait for her mum for Christmas. Time was very short as we were…

Welcome to my latest two bull dog and cow pet portraits. They are two separate portraits for the same client which I completed in December of last year. I have alternated photos of each drawing below, so that you can…

Welcome to Melanie’s December News! Well, what a month. I literally can’t believe how much work we have completed in the month of December. I’m sure that you can see by the number of our recent blog posts how many…

Welcome to my latest horse pencil drawing. The portrait of Duker was commissioned by Lizzie as a surprise for her mum Jane. Lizzie ordered a gift a portrait voucher as Jane’s birthday was fairly soon after Lizzies initial contact. She also…

Welcome to my latest artwork of a cuddly toy drawing of Piggy. I absolutely loved drawing Piggy for returning client Jo from the UK, it was so much fun. Jo commissioned the drawing of Piggy as a gift for her…

Welcome to our latest Cat Oil Portrait of Mitzy. Helen in the UK commissioned an oil painting of their family’s beloved cat called Mitzy. It was to be a surprise present for her husband. Sadly Mitzy has passed away and Helen…

Welcome to Nicholas’ latest King Charles Spaniel pet portrait. Readers may have noticed that we haven’t posted any of Nicholas’ oil paintings recently. I will be adding them to our blog over the next few days as surprises have been…

Welcome to Melanie’s monthly news in November! I can’t believe how quickly the months have been flying by. We really haven’t been out and about much at all this month, mainly due to the amount of work we have been…

Welcome to my latest Boxer dog drawing of the gorgeous Lola. Linda emailed me a few months ago and asked if I would be able to get a pencil drawing completed and framed for her husbands birthday in November. The…

Happy Halloween 2018!! Welcome to our Halloween post of 2018. Every year we celebrate Halloween by carving pumpins and decorating our inglenook with them and differnt coloured lights. We started with the front of our cottage putting up christmas coloured…

Welcome to Melanie’s Monthly News in October. Well, it’s definitely autumn! The leaves are falling fast and we took Lily to our favourite woodland walk in the forestry near us. It was full of fallen leaves for Lily to have fun…