Why do people get portraits of their pets?

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The rise of social media has enabled us to get behind, and drive our interests and hobbies towards finding and creating vast networks of posts relating to our chosen passions. We love our pets, and share our lives with dogs, cats, horses, rodents, reptiles, insects, domestic farm animals and birds (and many more that I haven’t mentioned!). The ability for subscribers to find, share and enjoy pictures and posts featuring their favourite breed or colour is vast, and is fostering the love and good habits of caring for our animals.

Dogs, in particular, show us how to be better human beings, they teach us how to show concern, how to be responsible for another, how to communicate without speech and most of all, how life is to lived to the full, now! In return, pets become part of our families, they share our happiness and comfort us when we are sad. They may win prizes for us, or work as a therapy dog in a hospital, either way, we want to acknowledge just how important our pet is to us.

A portrait is a way to showcase the very best image of your beloved companion. You get to choose the pose and the background, and whether there should be anyone else included in your portrait. Just like our photographs taken at weddings and graduations, paintings of your favourite image, a prize-winning pose, or an action shot from your best round at your last show are a fantastic way to capture those events, and to be reminded of those happy times every time you walk past your picture.

To sum up, I think the popularity of pet portraits is simply a demonstration of the enduring love that we have for the animals that share our lives and our homes. We want them to stay with us forever, and I think, this is one small way in which we can they can.