THOMASTON — Heidi Neal, owner of the Loyal Biscuit Compan,y sponsored a fundraiser for Pope Memorial Animal Shelter  Sunday, April 23, with Marie Spaulding, Channel Your Inner Artist painting classes. Spaulding hails from Sydney and travels around the state doing the classes. Neal said they were able to raise $150 for the shelter. The classes are limited to 15 people and another one will be held on May 21.

Neal said it is a fun afternoon to paint your own pet and raise some money for the shelter, as well.

"I met Marie when I did one of these classes up in Waterville," she said. "I thought it was a lot of fun and knew it would be a great class to have down here."

Spaulding said she generally does classes around the Augusta/Waterville area.

"I will, on occasion, if it's a fundraiser, go to some place different," she said. "I'm willing to travel. I really enjoy animals myself, so I enjoy doing the fundraising for the animals as well, especially shelters. I know they always need money."

Spaulding said she has been doing these painting classes since 2013.

"I didn't start out doing pet portraits," she said. "I had someone suggest it to me and I gave it a shot and it's gone over really well. People really love their animals and they get really excited about painting their pets."

Spaulding said people send them a photo of their pet before the class starts.

"I do a quick sketch, an outline, of their pet right on the canvas," she said. "I continually walk around and help people. We have a reference photo to go by, so we just kind of fill it in from there."

Spaulding said people pick pictures of pets they have lost or passed away and some are still alive.

"It's really fun to see people come in very hesitant about painting," she said. "And once they leave they're like, oh this was really fun or they say it actually looks like an animal."

Spaulding said she sees mostly dogs and cats, but....

"I've actually done a couple of classes with horses," she said. "One woman painted a four horned sheep, another person painted an African gray bird, there was a pot bellied pig, but generally its dogs and cats."

Spaulding said she paints a little bit of everything.

"Right now I have a series I'm working on with crows," she said. "In 2008 someone suggested that I put some paintings on display at the Senator Inn in Augusta. I did that and I sold a painting so it's kind of taken off from there."

If you would like to register for a pet painting class you can do so here, http://mariespauldingart.com/product-category/art-classes/ or email, info@loyalbiscuit.com