Southern Indiana Living - Sept / Oct 2022

Artist Spotlight
Man’s Best Friend
Local artist, Elaine Leidolf-Davis, paints unique hand-crafted pet portraits
Story by Darian Decker
Photos submitted by Elaine Leidolf-Davis
There are few gifts more personal
than a unique, hand-crafted
portrait of your favorite best
friend, and Elaine Leidolf-Davis
Paintings truly delivers.
Leidolf-Davis originally started
pursuing art in high school and graduated
from Ivy Tech with a degree in
graphic design.
“I knew I wanted to do something
where I could be creative in my
job,” she said. “I’ve worked for the
past 38 years doing graphic design,
marketing, advertising and social
media.”
Three years ago, after the passing
of her father, a series of events led
to Leidolf-Davis taking a few years
off work. In the midst of Covid, she
switched her focus to painting.
Although she started in acrylic
paints, Leidolf-Davis began taking
classes and working in oil on canvas
to have more blending ability.
“It’s a whole different medium
18 • Sept/Oct 2022 • Southern Indiana Living
— you have to use mineral spirits
and other mediums,” she said. “I really
liked that fact that I could paint
and if I wanted to change it later I still
could because it was wet enough. It
gives me a little more control.”
She had originally painted horses,
but after having a woman ask to
paint a dog of hers, she found there
was a real niche for pet portraiture.
“Ever since people saw that pet
painting, it just blossomed,” she said.
“I had finally found my niche.”
Since then, she’s developed her
website and Facebook page and solidified
her reputation as a pet portrait
artist.
“In 2021, when everything
opened up a bit, I thought, you know,
I’m semi-retired, I’m just going to go
to an art show and see what happens
because I had quite a few paintings
at that point,” she said. “I ended up
selling about seven of them at one
of these shows and I was so excited
about it because I’d never done that
before.”
Now, Leidolf-Davis attends
about four big shows a year, including
Big Four Bridge, Corydon Extravaganza,
MountFest and the Belknap
Neighborhood Art Show. The Big
Four Arts Festival is taking place on
Sept. 10 and 11 on the Louisville side
of the Big Four Bridge.
Ever since participating in the
art shows, her business has taken
off. While she does general work and
brings those pieces to shows, she is
mostly focused on her large intake of
commissions. At shows, she brings a
variety and paints pets on location.
“When people see me paint on
location, they stop in their tracks.
There’s a lot of pet people out there,”
Leidolf-Davis said. “And I love to do
it; it just comes easy to me. I do believe
that God is guiding me in this.”
When working on a commission,
all Leidolf-Davis needs is a clear