"Desire" Oil on hardboard, of our Italian Greyhound named Bridget.  Alternate title - "The Power of Beef Jerky"

This couch resides in my study, and after I recognized it offered some picture opportunities, I kept a camera handy.  One day, as I ate some beef jerky, sure enough, the stage was set.  I got this picture, except the front pillow was flipped over (the plain side).  So I Photo-shopped the pillow into the picture, after taking a picture of just the pillow but right-side up, and I had a finished composition that I only had to crop (an important and sometimes difficult part of composition) to complete.  Oh, I moved the pillow fringe on the corner in after cropping. The result just begged to be painted - it already had the feel of an oil painting in the old master tradition.  

I got a whole series of outstanding photos that day and subsequent days (even without jerky).  I have a couple more paintings at least out of this, and already the house is decorated with about 4 different photos of her on the couch.