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Alisonn Zorba of Willington, Connecticut has had a life-long love of animals and art. Primarily self-taught, she had exceptional mentoring from high school instructors Nora Addy Drake and Robert DeVoe and a year at Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. She was inspired to emulate the vibrant and realistic pastel portraiture of family friend, Doris Bryant of Sharon, Massachusetts. Horses were the main focus of attention in her early work but gradually she turned her hand to dogs.

One of Zorba’s pastels of a Yorkshire Terrier was the first artist’s work in more than a half- century on the cover of the American Kennel Gazette (December 1982). Another, this a portrait of a Morgan Horse, spent a year in the office of the Governor of the State of Connecticut and now hangs in the foyer of the new Horse Arena at the University of Connecticut.

Though primarily working in pastels, she has done many canine breed studies in pen and ink ~ many used by Farmington Valley Kennel Club for covers for their award-winning club publications. A special logo design for the Farmington club’s 50th Anniversary show (seen in Gazette November 1990) again brought her to the attention of the Gazette staff and she was invited to submit pen and ink studies for the Gazette breed columns for July and August 1991. Further, submission of that published work for competition in illustration, the Dog Writer’s Association of America awarded her a Maxwell Medallion for the work.

In the fall of 1997 a friend suggested entering Dog Fancier’s Club’s 10th Annual Art Competition. A prestigious jury panel comprising representatives of Christie’s in New York City, the Spanierman Gallery, New York, and the Board of the American Kennel Club awarded both her pastel study of a Whippet full-figure and an oil painting of a brace of Borzoi heads first places in their respective categories. In more recent competitions she has garnered a second place with an oil painting of Pugs and another first place for a pastel of a pair of Jack Russell Terriers.

The Zorba family has owned and operated Zenny’s Restaurant, Inc. in Storrs, Connecticut since 1980. Alisonn, has had dogs all her life, English and Irish Setters, Cocker Spaniels, a Jack Russell Terrier and Miniature Schnauzers and earlier in her life, cats and a horse. Having wandered the dog show scene shooting candids for her work, one day she decided to try having a showdog of her own- acquired a Welsh Springer Spaniel bitch, Bonnie, and, doing her own training, handling and grooming, finished Bonnie’s championship, trained for therapy visiting and qualified with Delta Society, and then discovered agility competition.

Her Bonnie has achieved her AKC agility title Master Excellent (MX) and became the first Welsh Springer Spaniel to achieve a Master Jumper with Weaves (MXJ) as well as becoming Top Welsh Springer Spaniel in AKC Agility for 2003. Alisonn also has competed with her second Welsh Springer Spaniel, Duncan, the first PAX Welsh Springer, now retired from agility, and, until his passing, an older gentleman Cocker Spaniel, Beaukin, in the New England area.

There is now a new member of the Zorba family, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel boy, Tizzy, Ch. Wellington Wicked Good, who, following in the pawprints of his elders, has attained titles in AKC agility and rally and obedience. He has also become the model for assorted art that now is expanding to the other colors in addition to Blenheim in the Cavalier world.

Examples of her work in pastel are occasionally on display at The William Secord Gallery in New York City, New York.

 

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