Call for Entries! My First Model Search Photo Contest

WIN a framed, full-color pastel or oil portrait of your pet (or favorite animal) worth over $500 by award-winning professional artist Donna McVicar Kazo (that's me!). News: Family emergencies and technical difficulties occupied me for a couple of weeks so I have extended the deadline to August 15, 2010! This is your chance!

Why a photo contest?

Well, first, I set a goal for myself last year: to draw every type of animal in the world! For that, I need models, and I'd prefer to use photos from people I know rather than from the internet and other, impersonal sources.

Second, in my 35+ years (yikes!) of painting lifelike portraits of animals, I've learned that most folks don't know how to take decent photographs of their pet. Surprisingly often, this much-adored pet passes away without a single good photograph of it, much less a full-fledged painted portrait, even if it's lived for many years. So, I want YOU to learn how to take memorable photos of your beloved animal companions.

Let's work together and have fun doing it! The winning photographs will be the ones that catapult me to the easel with a big grin on my face!

4 Categories & 4 Winners!

Enter YOUR photos in one or ALL of the Four Categories:

• Dogs
• Cats
• Horses
• Other animals (includes all other pets, zoo animals, wildlife, fish and other underwater animals)

$5.00 per entry, 1-5 photos per entry; each entry must be accompanied by a completed entry form and $5.00 (download the entry form here). You must also acknowledge that you have read the contest rules (printable version can be downloaded here).

Both digital and print (hard copy) photographs accepted.

What makes my contest different? Have you ever entered a competition and not had even a slight clue as to why you didn't, or did win? Did you ever wonder if the judges even looked at your entry? Well, not in this contest! I will email you a personal mini-critique of your photos! You will learn how to capture memorable moments with your pets that are worthy of being reference material for painted portraits. And then you can enter again!

Here's another way this is a different type of contest: even if you don't win the major prize, you may win years later! If I use your photograph to create a work of art, and you are still in contact with me, I will send you a print suitable for framing.

To help you learn how to capture exceptional photos, I have written a FREE guidebook called How to Take Great Photographs of Your Pets, based upon my many years in the demanding field of painting portraits of animals. You may download it here.

All entries must be submitted by August 15, 2010.
Winners will be notified by August 31, 2010.

Winning portraits will be published in The Pet Planet Magazine's Winter 2011 issue, along with the winning photograph and the name of the photographer and the animal.

I am thrilled to announce that I am now offering original works of art directly from my website, the start of a series based upon my visit to northeastern Tennessee three years ago. I've been brooding over my hundreds of photographs long enough! Time to get paintin' my "Tennessee Hillsides!"

In this series, I will be painting small canvases in oils and alkyds. To learn more about my reasons, and the process of their creation, please read my LiveJournal blog, where I will also include photos of paintings in progress. My hope is that other artists will be inspired and perhaps find an answer to their own painterly problems. In my blog, you will also learn why I am painting "Quartets."

This first Quartet is named "Light's Last Caress" because, after a gloomy January day, the sun suddenly appeared beneath the cloud deck to strike the cinnamon-hued weeds on the hillsides. Contrasting with the muted winter colors are bright green fields, which farmers have sown with hay or cover crops to protect and nourish the soil. In the far background are cedar trees so dark green they are almost black, and beyond them, the Appalachians.

All four versions of "Light's Last Caress," painted in alkyds and oils on 10" x 8" stretched canvas, are available directly from this website for $145 each. This price includes shipping via USPS Priority Mail; Florida sales tax is extra where applicable; click here to order.

Fine art prints and notecards of one version of "Light's Last Caress" are available only from my new RedBubble shop.