Just before travelling to Houston to present a hero portrait of fallen Mounted Patrol Horse Charlotte to the Houston Police Department, I was contacted by the French Embassy in Washington D.C. and asked to "paint a gift for France" of the specialized RAID team member, K9 Diesel.
Using only Derivan Matisse paints from Australia and after 237 hours of painting time, using dog food bowls to help make the insignia perfectly round and biting my nails while the painting was being framed, I was finally ready to present the painting during a gifting ceremony to France at the Embassy on December 12th, 2016.
After giving my presentation speech among dignitaries, Chiefs of police, and high ranking military members from both America and France, we played the video showing the creation of Diesel's painting and paying tribute to those lost that day. At the end of the video credits, one dignitary fainted. Yes, she fainted. After the dignitary was cared for, the Police Attache to France, Pierre-Edouard Colliex, jokingly stated "You're artwork is so beautiful it nearly killed her!"
Diesel's painting was due to fly back to France this year and marked the 44th painting completed in The K9 Hero Portrait Project.
More info: k9heroportraitproject.org
