After painting a once-off portrait for a friend last year, Colette Mulready now has her own 'Doodles' business, where she paints everything from kittens to dogs who have faithfully departed.

"I have always painted and last July I started doing paintings of pets for my family and friends, " she said. "Then I did a craft fair in Marlay Park at Christmas and things have gone from strength to strength since then."

Customers give Mulready a picture of their pet and she paints it in pastels before getting it framed.

"It takes me about six hours to paint a single pet portrait. Sometimes if I am not happy with the customer's photo of their pet, I go and take a photo myself.

The most important thing is to have a decent photograph as you need one to capture the personality of the dog, " she said.

Mulready's new venture is called 'Doodles' after one of her own dogs, Doodle, and one of the perks of the job is that it allows her to mix her love of dogs with her passion for art.

"If a family have a dog for 12 or 15 years it is part of the family so they might like to get a painting of it. I have even had people who have a photograph of a pet that has passed away and they ask me to do a painting of it, " she said.

"I am setting up a website, www. doodles. ie, so I expect more interest in portraits when I get that up and running."

Mulready's enterprise comes on the back of the successful New York Dog magazine and its sister publication in Hollywood.

Started by Irish media mogul John Ryan, New York Dog is a magazine exploiting the tendency of affluent people to spend a fortune on their pets.

New York Dog has published stories titled 'Dogs on Atkins!' and 'Ruff justice', which gave readers advice on how to keep their dog in a custody battle, so Mulready's venture is probably the sign of things to come in Ireland.

"I have noticed a lot of dogs wearing coats and other accessories in Ireland already so we are becoming more like American society, " she said.