How It All Began

My name is Brian Kurtz and I'm a digital artist based out of the Great Lakes State of Michigan who specialized in creating fine art portraits of pets in a realistic watercolor style.

My journey to becoming an animal artist began in an unexpected way over a decade ago when I was working as a real estate photographer. I came up with the idea that many of the people who were selling the home I was photographing would want a watercolor style painting of their home as a keep-sake. In fact, it would be a perfect closing gift that their Realtor could give them on closing day.

I had the reference photos, and then it hit me... all I needed was to learn how to extend the skill set I had working with Photoshop as a photographer to include the ability to transform a photo of a home into a painting of that same home. So I took a number of online classes that showed how to do just that and...well... I was off to the races.

That's where it started, but that's not where it ended.

Being married and having three children, we (like so many families) somehow began collecting pets over the years. At our peak it felt like I was operating my own private zoo with three cats, two dogs, a bearded dragon lizard, two guinea pigs, one ball python, one green anole, and one pygmy desert hamster... all housed under one roof. I had the camera equipment, I had the pets, and I had the skills to turn the photos of said pets into watercolor paintings. You can probably guess what happened from there.

I began to post some of my creations to social media and over time people started to reach out and inquire as to whether I could create a portrait of THEIR pet in my "cozy realism" style. So i did. And over time things began to grow. Eventually, I had to get someone to make this website because I wanted people like you to be able to catch the vision for what a high-end watercolor painting of their pet could look like in their own home.

And so here we are. If you are looking to get a portrait of your furry friend to hang on our wall in the near future... my commission book is open. Just click the link below and you'll step onto the path of learning how the whole process works. I look forward to seeing the photographs of your pet showing up in my email inbox so I can start working on your custom art piece soon.