Profile Of Our Cover Artist, Anna Fields.
Anna Hamilton Fields grew up in Saratoga Springs, New York. She has been drawing and paint- ing since she was a child. As a youth, her summers were spent drawing horses at the local thor- oughbred track and using her own pets as subjects. Her love of
art continued through school, followed by attendance
at the The Sage Colleges for Fine Arts and Art Therapy. After college, Anna moved to Williamsburg, Virginia where she started
drawing pastel portraits at theme parks and events while contin- uing to paint children and animal portraits. When she moved to Dunedin, Florida in 1999, Anna started doing murals for a local faux finishing company. Realizing this was her niche, she started her own business. Soon many of the small businesses in Dunedin had Anna painting murals for them. Local residents began hiring Anna to paint in their homes. Word spread and soon Anna’s murals were popping up all over the Bay Area. Now she works with a high end interior design firm doing custom wall finishes and continues to work with her own clients to make their homes and businesses beautiful.
Anna considers the Dogedin dog wall on Skips
Bar and Grill in downtown Dunedin to be one of her greatest achievements. More than 400 people have donated to Dunedin Dog Rescue to have their pets’ portraits painted on the mural. That mural has spawned a new way to help people and their pets. In late 2010 Anna and her friend, Dawn
Catacchio founded Murals for Mutts, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit organization that raises money for ani- mal welfare by painting pet portraits and pet murals in communities around the country.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED. ANNA HAMILTON, IN HERWORDS. Since much of my artwork is done outdoors, I use acrylic, water-based paint because it dries faster.
My career as an artist began at Busch Gardens- Williamsburg, drawing pastel portraits of visitors to the park. At the same time, I began doing custom art — pet and people portraits in pastel.
Ancestors on my father’s side of the family were illustrators and painters, so I guess you could say I was born to be an artist.
My favorite childhood pet was Annie, a Cairn 86 THE NEW BARKER
Terrier. She claimed me and was very protective of me. She could throw a tennis ball by popping it with her teeth. It once landed the ball right in my cereal bowl.
Luke, a rescued Pit-Bull mix, has been the leader of our pack since 2012. He oversees five cats, including his favorite, Mini. Luke and Mini play and snuggle while the others probably think he is just a big dumb cat.
In my home studio, Luke is always by my side and two cats are always in there as well. A studio at home is great because it allows me to paint anytime I want.
I sometimes listen to music via Pandora on my phone when painting murals. In my studio, the TV is usually on in the background — Investigative Discovery Channel or Forensic Files are my guilty pleasures.
Projects I’m working on now: Illustrating Dunedin author Joseph Sedona’s new book, Musical Mayhem. It’s the second book we’ve worked on together, the first being The Magic
Westinheimer.Also, ongoing murals at Pinellas County Animal Services and Pet Pal Animal Shelter in St. Petersburg.
Anna’s
Contact information For inquiries about dog walls or animal paintings, contact
muralsformutts@gmail.com For home or business murals or
artwork, contact
annaartist10@gmail.com.
MuralsForMutts.com
Since December, 2006, every cover of The New Barker dog magazine has been an original work of art by a different artist.
www.TheNewBarker.com
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