As a wildlife artist specializing in paintings and prints of hunting dogs, Carl Melichar is different from many other artists not only in his artistic style, but also in his attitude about making his work easily available to his customers.

“Early in my career, like many other wildlife artists, I had a choice between finding an agent to market my paintings or to do the marketing on my own,” Melichar reflects. “I decided to sell my works myself, not as a means to make more money, but as a way to give my customers more of a chance to buy my art at affordable prices.”

Now, 35 years later, Melichar is still the head artist and only salesman at his Countryside Art Gallery in Mayer, Minnesota, a half-hour west of Minneapolis. There he spends his time painting oil or watercolor images of all breeds of hunting dogs. And from there Melichar regularly travels across the country personally selling several of his originals and thousands of his print reproductions as well as calendars, mugs, coasters, notecards, t-shirts and other items with his dog pictures on them.

Among Melichar’s typical stops throughout the year are sports shows (he does a dozen or more of these annually), state fairs (he has had a booth at the Minnesota State Fair for 12 years), the Minnesota Renaissance Festival (again, here he has his own cubicle), Pheasant Forever Fests (he has had a table at each of these four events), and many other places where wildlife artists gather to display and sell their works.

Melichar’s Methods: Using a Camera To Capture Relevant Details
In painting a portrait of any gun dog breed, Melichar starts the process with first-hand observations and photographs.

“Though I like to see the canine subject in real life and shoot my own photos, I would just as often have people send me pictures they have taken of their dogs,” Melichar says. “No matter who does the photography, I prefer to have many close-up shots that clearly show the details of the dog’s eyes, face, head and body, which means the photographer needs to fill the frame with the entire dog.”

For anyone taking photographs of a dog, Melichar advises, “Be sure that there is lots of light that will make the dog’s eyes shine and sparkle and that will catch the expression in the face as well as the details of the hair color on the head and body.

“I like many photos from several angles so that there are several perspectives available in creating an all inclusive image with a paint brush. Film is cheap, so use up several rolls as a way of capturing the whole personality and character of the dog.”

Conceiving In Paint the Essence of a Gun Dog
Whether Melichar takes the photos himself or uses those sent to him by his customers, he makes sure dog owners pick a half-dozen or so pictures that they feel capture the most important features of the subject for the painting.

“By combining the selected photos, each of which shows some important facet of the dog, I can create a composite image of the dog in the painting.

“Identifying and expressing the essence of a subject based on all the component parts found in photographs often is the job of any artist who paints any kind of picture,” Melichar believes.

“That’s what makes a painting of a client’s dog better than a single photograph of the dog, because the painting is a combination of the best photos and is therefore more revealing and ultimately more complete.”