Benji the cocker spaniel looks up from his watercolour portrait, one of a series that a 13-year-old aspiring artist is working on to help raise funds for the dog sanctuary Noah’s Ark in Mellieħa.
A self-proclaimed “softie for animals”, Nicole Azzopardi was deemed too young to lend a helping hand at the dog shelter.
Longing to support the animals “in any way possible”, she put pencil to paper and sketched the portrait of the family dog, a golden retriever. Pleased with the result she decided to debut her watercolour painting skills.
The result was a set of portraits – stunning, considering the artist’s age — depicting a painful past reflected through the gaze of the sanctuary’s four-legged residents.
The task at hand was not an easy one. Ms Azzopardi first took pictures of the dogs, as it was impossible for her to sketch them while they fidgeted and jumped around.
Even though she had never used watercolours, it took her only around two-and-a-half hours to finish each portrait, and she hopes she will be able to paint more than a dozen which the sanctuary will sell later on.
“Each dog has a story, and I tried to mirror this in the watercolours,” she said, fiddling with the sketch book in her hands.
“Tita had her ears cut,” Ms Azzopardi said, while pointing to a depiction of a female fighting pit bull.
“Samson here had been beaten and is now scared of people, while Jerry Lee has suffered a hip dislocation,” she added.
“This cute cocker spaniel, Benji, flips at times, but he is so gorgeous,” she giggled.
Ms Azzopardi lives in Switzerland with her parents and younger brother Zak and the family travels to Malta every summer.
As part of her extracurricular activities, Ms Azzopardi enrolled in the Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme of the International School of Zug and Luzern, for which she had to dedicate some hours to develop a skill, render a service, practise a sport and go on an adventure.
She decided to volunteer at Noah’s Ark as part of her service obligations but did not qualify, as she had to be at least three years older.
“What I really hope is that in the end I use my skill to help the dogs. I’m a softie when it comes to animals,” she added.
Her father Brian smiled, explaining that with the help of her cousin she had recently saved a dove from drowning at the Grand Harbour marina.
Ms Azzopardi excelled in art at school but is also studying the violin, flute and singing.
“I’ve always searched for things to draw or paint. I remember when I was younger, I used to go out in the playground, pick up stones lying around and use them to sketch something on the ground.”
She has tried her hand at different media, including oil paints and digital art. “I don’t actually know what I want to focus on. The more I explore art, the less I know what I want to specialise in,” Ms Azzopardi said.
During a recent visit to Ragusa, Ms Azzopardi earned her first commissioned work, where she was asked to paint a puppy.
“I’m still exploring the art world and I try to draw anything which catches my eye.”