By Adria L. Henderson

Through the eyes and into the soul of the dog – that is where Michael Morshuk of Newtown can take you with his art.

Michael Morshuk’s dog portraits draw the observer into the very essence of the animal and you can almost feel the heat of the dog’s body emanating from the surface of the canvas. As the viewer quickly realizes that this is not just another pet portrait, they also realize it is Mr Morshuk’s ability to capture this inner essence that separates his dog portraits from the more common one-dimensional pet painting.

Mr Morshuk’s flair for drawing dates back to elementary school and he developed his talent with years of traditional training. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Mr Morshuk began his art career as a salesman in a New Jersey art store, working his way through several art-related jobs, and finally settling down as an illustrator for a large design firm in New York.

During these years, he had illustrations published in Connecticut Magazine, Fairfield County Weekly, The Atlantic Monthly, and other high-end magazines.

Most illustrators would have been perfectly satisfied with the level of achievement realized by Mr Morshuk, but he began to feel inhibited and unable to express his best work under the time pressure inherent in the commercial art field. When his daughter Kelsea Grace was born four years ago, he decided it was the perfect time to start his own illustration business.

A move from New Milford to Newtown allowed Mr Morshuk to set up a studio in his new home. His home-based business gave him the freedom to work without pressure and care for his infant daughter while his wife Robbin, a marketing vice president, commuted to her job in Darien.

 Although Mr Morshuk is an animal lover (his household consists of his yellow Labrador Autumn, one cat, one rabbit and a few fish tanks), choosing a dog portrait for his marketing campaign was really just a coincidence. At the time, he was fascinated by a painting of a dog in a magazine and decided to try his hand at a dog portrait. Pleased with the result, Stasha’s Pasture, a riveting portrait of a Weimaraner under a starlit sky, became his calling card.

Mr Morshuk soon realized that the texture and tonality of the dog form flowed easily from his hand onto the drawing surface. In fact, he felt drawing the dog’s form and evolving personality was far more comfortable for him than his attempts at expressing the human form. It was this feeling of satisfaction, and several requests from dog owners after seeing Stasha’s Pasture, that caused Mr Morshuk to focus on dog portraits.

The backgrounds he has chosen for his dogs are slightly unorthodox. In his series Dogs at Sea, the dogs were placed in a predetermined setting – the sea. The series combines the dog’s likeness in atypical surroundings, such as the coast of Maine, an area of the country that inspires much of Mr Morshuk’s work.

More recently, however, Morshuk has found that the background tends to evolve “on its own” after the dog’s form and personality are captured.

When working with a live model, he will wait for the dog to forget his presence in an attempt to capture the subject in his truest form. A turn of the dog’s head, or an expression at a moment of relaxation, will give Mr Morshuk the look he’s after. His aim is to portray the dog in as a natural a pose as possible, with the dog reacting to his environment, not to him.

If possible, he prefers to spend a significant amount of time with the dog, doing a couple of sketches and possibly photographing the dog to pick up subtle nuances – especially the eyes and facial characteristics.

Mr Morshuk has also worked strictly from photographs as with his creations Baci By the Sea and Lou. Clients commissioned these portraits after the passing of their pets. In one case, the client told Mr Morshuk that she was only able to cry for her loss after she saw his finished product, it so completely depicted her pet’s true spirit.

One of the first dog portraits Mr Morshuk ever exhibited, Behind the Pines, walked away with the 1999 Best in Show – Mixed Media Award from the Society of Creative Artists of Newtown. This year’s cash award from SCAN was again awarded to Morshuk for Approaching Monhegan. This painting is a departure from the his other works as the dog in the portrait is facing the landscape rather then the viewer.

Riding the ferry to Monhegan Island, Maine with his dog, he was captivated by Autumn’s intense fascination with the landscape as they approached the island. Even though Autumn is not facing to the viewer, Morshuk has once again captured the essence of the dog in that one moment in time.

On the weekend of June 9 and 10, Mr Morshuk will be exhibiting at the Greenwich Kennel Club and the Longshore-Southport Kennel Club dog shows on the campus of SUNY at Purchase, New York. And, in approximately three weeks, his new web-site, www.modogart.com, will be available with a complete inventory of all his works for viewing and for sale.

Word is spreading rapidly through the art world about Mr Morshuk’s paintings. He has been contacted by several galleries and magazines looking to present his work, and many new clients have commissioned portraits. There seems to be no doubt that his decision just two years ago to focus on dog portraits was the right choice.

Adria L. Henderson, owner of Safe at Home, a Newtown based Pet Sitting business, contributes Animal Lifestyles. You can contact her at 426-5784, at P.O. Box 3008 in Newtown, or e-mail at petfocus@aol.com.