Janet Van Damm - Portrait Artist

Janet Van Damm's love of drawing shows in every portrait she does. She has the ability to capture the soul of our animal friends in their eyes. Her animal portraits are so realistic that it seems you can reach out and touch them in the drawing.

This page contains two portraits she has done for me recently. Click on the link at the bottom of the page to see samples of her past work. As you will see, Ms. Van Damm is equally talented regardless of who her subject is.

Ms. Van Damm has graciously offered to donate 15% of the total cost of all commissioned art work to either Blue Ridge Assistance Dogs or The Magic Bullet Fund. Please see our Charties page for further information on these two non-profit organizations.

You can contact Ms. Van Damm at: jkvandamm@frontiernet.net

Teddy & Elizabeth
December 2008

This is the most recent work Ms. Van Damm has done for me. Ms. Van Damm took 2 separate pictures and incorporated them into one portrait of Teddy and "his kitty", Elizabeth. The picture of Teddy was taken when he was about 2 years old. He is much grayer now at the age of 12, but still full of the same spunk and energy he had 10 years ago. Elizabeth is 7 years old. Even though the picture does not show the true color of Elizabeth's eyes, Ms. Van Damm did a wonderful dog of deciphering what "the Queen's" eyes look like. I'm so happy to have this portrait of my 2 current housemates. It is now hanging in the living room of my home where anyone visiting can see it.

Peanuts
July 2007

Peanuts was my best friend while growing up, and we were lucky enough to have him with us for almost 18 years. The day he passed away was probably the saddest day of my life. I provided Ms. Van Damm with several pictures of my old friend that had been taken over the years, none of which were of very good quality or very clear. Ms. Van Damm was given the choice of using which ever photo she wanted for her "model". The drawing on the right was done from the photo to the left, which was taken approximately a year before Peanuts died. A friend who saw the portrait stated that she felt she could see Peanuts' soul in his eyes. Most folks who are dog lovers will tell you they can "hear" what their dog is thinking just by looking in its eyes. At the time the photo was taken, Peanuts' eyes were extremely cloudy from age. This portrait reminds me once again how devoted Peanuts was to his family and how he watched over us with his loving heart. Ms. Van Damm made the choice to make Peanuts' eyes look clearer than they did towards the end of his life. I'm so glad she did! This portrait took my breath away the first second I saw it. And it still brings tears to my eyes whenever I look into the eyes of my beloved old friend.

Pup Pup
March 2007

Pup Pup stole a big piece of my heart the first time we met. She was born with a bad heart defect and was not expected to live longer than 6-9 months. Pup Pup died unexpectedly of a stroke after living almost 8 years longer than originally anticipated. She died as she had lived, enjoying life to the fullest. During a visit with a pet communicator, Pup Pup paid a visit to let us know she had a very important job to do in Heaven; to teach all the children who had been disabled in life that they were no longer disabled. It had been their physical bodies and not their spirit that was disabled. When I told Ms. Van Damm about Pup Pup's visit, she stated she would like to incorporate this into the portrait. The results of this collaberation with Ms. Van Damm can be seen in the portrait above. That Pup Pup is now helping others came as no surprise to anyone who knew her. The wings and halo are so fitting for this sweet little girl. Pup Pup had the kindest, most loving soul of any dog I have had the pleasure of sharing my life with. Her life may have been much too short, but she made the most of every moment she spent here with us on earth.