In the Lowcountry, pets aren’t accessories. They’re family. They ride in golf carts, nap under café tables, greet neighbors like a mayor would, and appear in holiday cards with alarming regularity. It’s no surprise, then, that commissioning pet portraits has become a deeply personal form of celebration and remembrance across the region.
Here, five Lowcountry artists approach pet portraiture through strikingly different lenses – from minimalist whimsy to classical realism – each translating fur and feeling into something timeless.
While each of these artists approaches pet portraiture differently – through whimsy, realism, emotion, structure, or tradition – all arrive at the same destination: connection. In the Lowcountry, where pets are woven into daily life, these portraits become more than décor. They are love letters, memorials, and moments made permanent.
Long after the leash is hung and the bowl is empty, the gaze remains – painted, preserved, and deeply felt.
Knarly Gav (Gavan Daly)
Minimalist Whimsy with a Tattooed Soul
If a cat eating watermelon has ever made you smile, you’ve likely encountered the work of Knarly Gav. Known off-canvas as Gavan Daly, the Lowcountry artist has built an international following by distilling animals down to their essence, then adding just enough humor to make them unforgettable.
Raised between the Virgin Islands and Hilton Head Island, Daly grew up immersed in nature, a connection that still fuels his work. A lifelong animal lover and committed vegan, he views pet portraiture as a form of honoring rather than owning. “I love animals,” he said simply. “I like celebrating them.”
His now-iconic cat-with-watermelon image emerged during a sweltering Brooklyn summer while working in his longtime New York studio. “It was 100 degrees. I wanted something refreshing,” he recalled. The image spread rapidly on Instagram, spawning a series of animals – dragons, panthers, dogs – all mid-snack, all unmistakably his.
Daly’s visual language borrows from tattoo flash: bold shapes, soft gradients, and watercolor shading that echoes ink on skin. Though self-taught as a visual artist, his background in music — including work with the New York Philharmonic and across genres — informs his approach. “All art has the same fundamentals – tension, release, rhythm,” he said.
During COVID, when his tattooing work slowed, Daly turned to pet portraits full-time. The response was immediate. His simplified, figurative style resonated with clients seeking something expressive rather than photographic. “People tell me I capture their animal’s essence,” he said. “That’s everything.”
Humor is central to his work. “If you can make someone smile, that matters,” Daly said, especially in a world that sometimes forgets art can be joyful. Whether commemorating a pet who’s passed or celebrating one still curled up at home, his portraits freeze a moment in time with lightness and heart.
Instagram & Facebook: @Knarlygav
Email: knarlygav@knarlygav.com
Olivia Lynch
Realism Embedded in the Eyes
For Olivia Lynch, the soul of a pet lives in the eyes, and everything else follows from there. A born-and-raised Hilton Head Island artist, Lynch has quietly built a reputation for deeply realistic pet portraits that stop viewers mid-sentence and, more often than not, bring them to tears.
Unlike many artists who discover pets later in their careers, Lynch’s path feels almost inevitable. She spent much of her childhood creating art alongside her grandmother, who encouraged creativity as both pastime and practice. “She always had me doing arts and crafts to keep me busy,” Lynch said.
Formal classes followed – after-school camps, local studio work, and years of instruction at Idea Studio, where she credits teacher Ginny Taylor with helping her master the fundamentals. Even before that, though, Lynch says that her art teacher at Hilton Head Island High School, Monique Dobbelaere, was impactful and supportive in moving her forward.
Pet portraits entered the picture just over a year ago, beginning with a Christmas gift for her sister: a painting of her dog. Friends took notice. Requests followed. Word spread. “It became something I really enjoyed doing,” Lynch said. She has now completed roughly 20 paintings, each one entirely unique.
Working exclusively from photographs, Lynch paints in acrylics, favoring black-and-white compositions that heighten emotion and detail. Her process is methodical and patient – a sketched outline, blocked shadows, gradual layering, and hours spent refining texture and fur. “I do a lot of layers,” she said. “I keep adding until it’s as realistic as I can make it.”
Each portrait takes about eight hours, often spread across several days, allowing for breaks – and perspective.
What matters most, she says, is getting the eyes right. “They really bring the whole painting together and bring the personality out,” Lynch said. It’s a philosophy that shows. Clients consistently tell her she’s captured not just the likeness, but the presence of their pet.
The reactions are powerful. Lynch has received videos of gift recipients opening portraits and crying happy tears. For those who’ve lost a beloved animal, the paintings offer something deeper. “They say it’s almost like they still have them there,” she said.
Now a full-time artist, Lynch works primarily in intimate sizes, 8-by-8 inches or 8-by-10 inches, perfect for framing, gifting, and everyday remembrance. Her work doesn’t shout. It doesn’t need to. It simply looks back at you, eyes first, and lets memory do the rest.
Instagram: @livn_lowcountry
Email: olivialynch7313@gmail.com
Ashley Hahn
Structure, Sensitivity, and Precision
Ashley Hahn approaches pet portraiture with the trained eye of an architect and the heart of a devoted pet lover. Though her formal degree is in architecture, art has always been part of her life, something she’s done, as she puts it, “since I was little.” Drawing and painting were second nature long before she ever drafted a blueprint.
Her transition from architecture to full-time portraiture came after becoming a mother. When her youngest child was about a year and a half old, Hahn decided to draw her children’s portraits – just for herself. The work resonated with others. Requests followed. Soon she was creating portraits of people, children, and eventually pets, a practice she began in earnest around 2009.
The first animal portrait was deeply personal – a graphite drawing of her family’s Labrador, Whiskey, created for her husband after the dog passed away. “That was the beginning,” Hahn said. Since then, she has completed countless pet portraits, split almost evenly between memorial pieces and celebratory commissions for pets still very much alive.
Measured, thoughtful, and emotionally grounded, Hahn’s portraits don’t just resemble the animals they depict – they honor them, with care and precision.
Hahn works across multiple media – graphite and charcoal for drawings, oils and watercolors for paintings – allowing clients to choose the look and feel that speaks to them most. “There’s a timelessness to the graphite portraits,” she notes, while oil paintings offer drama, texture, and depth. Regardless of medium, one thing remains constant: her focus on the eyes. “That’s where you see their personality,” she explains. “It’s the same with people.”
Each project begins with several photographs. Hahn works closely with clients to select the image that best captures the pet’s spirit, paying attention to lighting, expression, and clarity. Sizes range from 11-by-14-inch drawings to expansive oil paintings, including a striking 36-by-48-inch horse portrait. Drawings are delivered protected and ready for framing; paintings are typically left unframed, allowing owners to personalize the final presentation.
Turnaround time is surprisingly efficient. Most drawings are completed within one to two weeks, while oil paintings take longer due to layering and drying time. Still, the response is almost immediate. “You can tell in the reaction,” Hahn said. “My goal is always to bring people joy.”
Measured, thoughtful, and emotionally grounded, Hahn’s portraits don’t just resemble the animals they depict – they honor them, with care and precision.
Instagram: @ashleyrhahnartist
Website: ahahnartist.com
Email: ashleyrhahn@icloud.com
Tetiana Sporna
Emotion in Motion
For Tetiana Sporna, painting pets is about capturing energy – the spark that makes an animal unmistakably theirs. She brings an intuitive, emotionally driven approach to pet portraiture that feels alive with motion, color, and feeling.
A native of Ukraine, Sporna studied architecture there, and though she always enjoyed drawing as a child, painting was never her primary focus, until about a year ago. “Art helped me reset my brain,” she said. “It helped me express myself.” What began as an occasional creative outlet quickly became something deeper, especially after she relocated to Hilton Head Island, where open spaces, dogs on leashes, and everyday encounters sparked new inspiration.
Sporna works primarily in acrylics, painting not only pets but also expressive portraits of women. Still, animals – especially dogs – hold a special place in her heart. “One day I’ll have a dog,” she said with a smile. For now, she paints other people’s beloved companions, and finds she is often drawn to pets with strong personalities or expressive eyes.
Her first pet commission came unexpectedly, when a friend asked her to paint a dog who had passed away. Nervous but willing, Sporna accepted the challenge and discovered something important. “It worked,” she said. “And I realized I could do this.” From there, word spread organically: friends, Instagram followers, restaurant patrons who saw her painting during slow shifts, even strangers in parks who later commissioned pieces shipped as far as Florida and Texas.
Sporna’s style sits somewhere between realism and expressionism. Her pets are a perfect likeness, down to a speck of white on a nose, and emotionally true, but often enhanced with bold color choices, floral accents, and subtle details that convey mood. “I go with feeling,” she said. “I like eyes. I like energy.” When a photo feels too flat, she digs deeper, scrolling through videos, social media, or additional images until she finds the spark that tells the animal’s story.
Sporna paints pets still and in motion, always striving to capture a moment rather than a pose. Sizes range from 10-by-8-inch works to popular 11-by-14-inch portraits, with most commissions completed within one to two weeks. Occasionally, deadlines push her into marathon painting sessions – exhausting, but worth it.
The reactions make it all meaningful. Clients cry. They send videos. One woman called her pet portrait “the best gift of my life.” For Sporna, that response confirms the purpose behind her work. “It means I do this for a reason,” she said. “It means what I feel can be shared, and that makes people happy.”
Instagram: @art_by_tetiana
Colin Noonan
Classical Calm and Quiet Dignity
Colin Noonan approaches pet portraiture with the sensibility of a classically trained painter and the gentle reverence of someone who understands just how deeply animals are woven into our lives. A graduate of Pratt Institute in New York with a bachelor’s degree in fine art, Noonan has been painting professionally since shortly after college, building a career entrenched in traditional technique, careful observation, and respect for form.
While he currently paints both people and animals, Noonan noticed a natural shift over time. “People love commissioning portraits of their pets,” he said. Pets, after all, carry deep emotional weight without the self-consciousness that sometimes accompanies human portraiture. “People love their pets. They live with them. They want them remembered.”
Working primarily in oil and watercolor, Noonan favors a representational style that emphasizes strong likeness and subtle lighting. His portraits often echo classical European painting traditions – pets depicted in moments of stillness rather than action, their presence calm and dignified. “I think of it like classical portraiture,” he said. “There’s a distinction to them.”
Most commissions begin with photographs, often several. While Noonan enjoys painting from life when possible, he acknowledges that pets – unlike people – rarely sit still long enough to cooperate. Social media has also expanded his reach, allowing clients from outside the Lowcountry to commission work without ever meeting him in person.
What he looks for in reference images isn’t just clarity, but data and visual potential. “I want something compelling,” he said. Open mouths, subtle expressions, the way light falls across fur – these details help guide his decisions. He often begins with the eyes or muzzle, letting the painting build outward organically. “Sometimes they almost paint themselves,” he said.
Noonan typically works in modest sizes, preferring to keep pets slightly smaller than life-size. Larger-than-life portraits, he believes, can push the work into pop-art territory, something he deliberately avoids. Instead, he aims for intimacy, as though the animal exists within the painting rather than looming over it.
For Noonan, the most rewarding part of the process comes at the end, upon delivering the painting, he said. Watching owners connect with the finished piece – seeing recognition, emotion, and gratitude all at once – reinforces why he continues to paint animals at all.
Quiet, thoughtful, and fixed in tradition, Noonan’s pet portraits offer something enduring: a sense of presence that lingers long after the paint has dried.
Instagram: @colinnoonan
