Inside the Studio: The Keeping Company Collection

Keeping Company is a collection I built around a subject that keeps pulling me back: the moments when people and animals share space without performance, without an audience, just closeness. Some of the animals in this series are pets. Others are wild. What connects them is the same quiet posture of trust.

The first painting in the collection is Enough. A young woman sits on stone steps, knees drawn up, a small dog held close against her chest. Her face turns away and down, not hidden, just elsewhere, absorbed in what she's holding. I surrounded her in deep emerald and teal, layers of foliage and shadow pressing in from every side. Just a woman and a dog, and the particular stillness of already having all that you need in your arms.

The second piece, The Offering, moves that same idea into public space. A child pauses in a city park, cradling a white dove while dozens more birds move freely around her feet. I layered the scene in warm gold and deep teal: an autumn tree, the textured facade of a building behind her, a cool stone ledge underfoot. The birds don't scatter. They stay close, undisturbed by her presence, and she stays still for them.

Both paintings are mixed media, and both grew out of the same question I keep circling back to in my studio: what does it look like when a person and an animal simply keep each other company: proximity, and the trust that makes proximity possible.

I'm continuing to add to this series, and I'll share new pieces here as they're finished. Enough and The Offering are both available now if you'd like to see them in person or bring one home.

Shana