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Composition
Thank you Alex for those appreciative comments. Actually I tend to put a lot of thought and effort into composition (perhaps at times a little too much). The essence of portraiture is the face and as many visual pathways as possible should lead there. In this instance the flowers, the pestle, the back of the chair and her arm are all visual signposts that point to her face. My other challenge in this portrait (as it is in any painting that has more than one subject) was to connect the dog and the owner. Having her in physical contact with the dog would have put a strain on her pose, and having them looking at each other would have been a little forced. So I decided to have them look at the same object, namely you the viewer. I was also helped in that the dog and her owner had remarkably similar coloring in their eyes and hair, so there was an additional visual connection between the two.
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