Bardie grew up in remote Australia and found an inner-city Melbourne life. She is happiest when gardening or hanging out with her close friends in North Fitzroy.

Leroy (Roy) is an energetic kelpie whose favourite place is the land near Canberra where he spends many of his weekends. The sketch was completed in a rare moment of rest for Roy, and as you can see even then he is alert and ready to get up and run.

Millie is a Miniature Australian Bulldog. The breed is a combination of French bulldog, Australian bulldog and pug. Her owner wanted Leesa to capture her smiling. The clear answer is – this is her smiling.

Bear was big and handsome, originally named Bearstow (after the Geelong football player). The day he sat (well, lay) for Leesa was close to the end of this life. He had lived with two bulldogs and was tolerant of their more active personas. His eyes shone with gentleness and he was a devoted pet and loyal and faithful friend to Deb for 12 years.

Jackson was named after the famous June Carter-Cash song. Jackson was a gentleman dog — large in presence, soft in nature. He lived a happy life with Leesa from the day she rescued him from the RSPCA when he was a tiny puppy, until he died in 2016, aged 14. Jackson was the inspiration behind this arts project. Using him for a model when Leesa was studying sculpture, she created a number of “sculpture sketches” of him that captured his playfulness and stature.

Tibby was a rescue sculpture. Not intended to be bronzed, Tibby was instead sculptured and fired, and unfortunately blew up in the kiln! He was glued back together piece by piece and painted to restore him to his likeness.

Marrick is a black bundle of love. He was a special challenge to sculpt because of his curly hair, but as you can see in the black bronzed version of himself, he came up really well.