Pet Portraits & Animal Art by Abi Cushman

Abi Cushman is an animal artist residing in the southeastern Connecticut town of East Lyme. A lifelong animal-lover, Abi has always featured pets and wildlife in her art. For pet portraits, Abi focuses on the animal's eyes because she believes they help reveal the pet's personality. While she enjoys working in a wide variety of styles and mediums, one common theme in her pet portraits is the extensive layering and building of color. Abi's wildlife fine art tends to be more symbolic. In her artist's book, Wilderness Endures, Abi dissected Western society's perceptions of wolves as manifested through fairytales such as The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood, and compared them to scientific research of wolves and their social behavior.