The artist confesses that "Fraiser" is not her dog. Though she wishes he were.
Art & Animals
Surrounded by animals all her life, Aimée’s earliest drawings were of horses, dogs, cats and bears. If it had four legs and furry ears, it was in her sketch book. But it wasn’t until years later, after college, that she painted her very first custom pet portrait.
After graduating with an art degree in 1992 from California State Long Beach, Aimée was working as a freelance graphic artist when she was introduced to an older gentlemen named George. She quickly learned that they shared a deep affection for animals–especially dogs. In fact, George was such an amimal lover that at the age of 65, he even did a little pet sitting for friends and family. Once he realized Aimée had a degree in art, he asked if she had ever painted dogs (having his own pooches in mind as subjects). Although she hadn’t sketched a quadruped for 20 years, she said she could give it a shot. That same week, George produced a photo of his cockapoos, Honey and Sonny, and Aimée went to work.
When she presented the finished portrait a month later it was (very much to her surprise) received with hugs and tears. No one had ever reacted with such strong emotion to her work before. She was a little perplexed at first, but then realized she had never painted a subject as beloved as the family dog. Then the idea clicked: pet portraits. Commissions trickled in slowly at first, but after a few years, she was able to make the leap to full-time artist.
Aimée and Bonnie reveal a new portrait on the Bonnie Hunt Show
A decade later, Aimée’s portraits hang in the homes of animal lovers all over the world, from New York to the Netherlands. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including Bark Magazine, Modern Dog, and Australia’s Urban Animal, and was most recently “unveiled” on national television when she returned as a guest on the Bonnie Hunt Show.