Middletown artist captures pets with remarkable likeness
MIDDLETOWN — Pet owners are extolling the skills of a local painter, saying she has an uncanny ability to bring images of their four-legged friends to life by seeing just a simple photograph of their canines, felines and other pets without even having met them in the flesh.
Jess Behm, who has lived in Middletown her entire life, went to Mercy High School and graduated from Middletown High. Behm, a stay-at-home mom with a young daughter, earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Hartford Art School, and formerly taught paint night classes in Harford, New Haven and Middletown.
Her preferred medium is acrylics, and, although she paints pets and humans, prefers the animals. “I’m such a pet lover,” she said. “I’m able to pull out their personality. … The eyes are very telling. … It’s all in how you capture their eyes,” said Behm, who has a cane corso. “It holds the most life.”
She’s also painted portraits of pets that have died. “It strikes a cord in them and get teary-eyed. People get really emotional about their pets,” Behm said.
Cindy Estrada of Stamford, who has known Behm since high school, commissioned her friend to paint her Boston terrier puppy Geno, who died in 2019 of nasal cancer. His large portrait hangs over their living room mantle.
Geno’s painting, with a royal purple background, is placed on a dark-green wall. “It just pops. Everybody says, ‘that’s Geno.’ He looks so handsome,” Estrada said. “We see it and we remember him in a happier place versus how he was suffering at the end.”
The artist was also able to convey the dog’s strength. “He looks so poised. … She really conveyed who he was. … It was amazing for us because it really helped us heal,” Estrada said.
“It’s a good way to look at their pets, smile and look back at the happy days,” said Behm.
Early on, Behm was told she’d develop her own style. “’Your painting this year should be your worst the next year,’” she recalled a professor telling her.
Estrada has known Behm for many years. “Ever since we were young, Jess has been so talented and gifted when it comes to the arts,” she said. “We would take pottery class together and she would be the best in the class. There was no competition.
“Her sketching, artwork, painting, everything, would just blow everybody out of the water,” Estrada said.
Liz Quinn of Middlefield saw the images of Behm’s work on Facebook. She knew immediately that she wanted the artist to paint her and her boyfriend’s rescue dog Deuce, a Labrador mix.
Afterward, she asked Behm to paint their former dog, Matthew, another rescue; their “pride and joy,” Quinn said.
He was killed after being hit by a car. “It’s the spitting image of him,” she said. Matthew, nicknamed “Bubba,” was her boyfriend’s “everything,” an emotional support dog who went with him to work every day, she said.
Behm managed to create a near mirror image of the dog. “It’ll give you chills,” said Quinn. “I was not expecting that. My boyfriend and I both cried at both of the pictures. It makes me speechless.”
Most recently, Behm has been creating circular, wooden ornaments she calls “minis,” rather than ornaments, because they can be hung up year-round, she said. These 3-by-3-inch works of art offer a less expensive alternative to a full painting. “It took off after that. Everyone was interested in getting one,” she said.
Clients take photos of their pets and send them to the artist with guidelines that she provides. She relies on the owners, who know their animals best, to take good pictures, Behm said. “I’ve had some really cool ones,” said the artist, who has also painted a couple of Middletown police canines, including one that died.
Behm insists on having people turn up in person to collect their art. “I like to see the initial reaction when they’re opening it up for the first time,” she said.
Her work, including a portrait of her dog, can be seen in the windows of the Dog Cabin on Berlin Street, where Behm used to work.
Jade Sharkany of South Windsor, who commissioned Behm four times to paint ornaments of her dog Daisy and cat Ozark, said her work is “incredible,” and even better than photos show.
She was impressed by Behm’s talent after seeing photos on Facebook, and immediately thought, “I have to get one.”
Ozark is all black, and Daisy, an English mastiff, has a dark brindle coat. Since the canine is pretty much all-black, Sharkany said, she was curious to see whether Behm could recreate her canine’s coat with nuanced shades rather than flat. “She did such an amazing job. They’re so lifelike. She captured [the dog and cat] perfectly,” she said.
After Sharkany saw Daisy’s portrait, “I became a little obsessed,” she said, adding that was so pleased with the results that she immediately asked Behm to paint her cat, two goats, and her friend’s cat as a birthday present.
“The way she was able to capture the lighting and the different shades of black. It’s very realistic,” Sharkany said looking at her cat’s ornament, “even down to her eyes. It’s not just another black cat. I look at the picture and I see ‘that’s Ozark.’
“There’s a quality expression in her paintings,” she added. When Behm unveiled the ornament, a surprise Christmas gift for her boyfriend, Sharkany said he was “overjoyed: This man was happy.”
Quinn rates Behm’s talent as 10 out of 10. “It’s worth the wait,” she said. “She takes her time and is really professional and sweet.”
For information, visit Jess Behm Artwork on Facebook or email jlbehm73@gmail.com.
