Dog Art Today

A Ghost at Dog Bar?

 

Is it me, or do you see an image of a girl in a long dress sitting on the left stair rail?  Darby is the brown smudge on the top step.  He didn't seem fearful.

I'm still trying to figure out this Polaroid.

Have a great weekend.

Kathryn Freeman: Young Girl and Two Dogs

 

 

Young Girl and Two Dogs by Kathryn Freeman, 2011

Visit Kathryn Freeman's website and blog, where she shares her process and her progress.  I especailly like seeing her detailed sketches and learning more about her work.  For example, this piece was inspired by her daughter and was eight years in the making.

Minnie Teckman's Project Dog Walk

 

Minnie Teckman is a former veterinary nurse who lives in Northhampton, UK.  In 2005, she decided to go back to school and study art at the University of Northampton, but her Project Dog Walk began several years earlier.  She explains:

The inspiration for this project came from an elderly woman I met in 2001 while travelling in Australia. She was walking down the road with her blue moccasin slippers on, being dragged along by an equally elderly Yorkie in a matching blue crocheted coat. The woman was amazed when I stopped the van I was driving and jumped out to take her photo, even more astonished when I asked to photograph just her feet and little dog.

As dog lovers, most of us don’t even look at the owner's face when we first greet one another on a walk, yet we recognise the dog and the legs first. My task is to capture that experience and moment; and to share my fascination of the animal/human bond with you.

The old saying that ‘a dog looks like its owner’ is often seen in my work, where the body language of the owner and pet mirror one another.

Now she is working on a book and looking for creative words and images to go with her drawings.  Visit her blog to learn more about submitting something before August 6, 2011.

For information about commissioning Minnie Teckman to draw a portrait of your dog walk (she can work from photographs) click here.

 

Lucian Freud Dies at 88

 

 

Eli, David Dawson's Whippet, in the Artist's Studio by David Dawson

Lucian Freud, a man who redefined the portrait, died on Wednesday July 20, 2011.  He was as gifted at painting naked flesh as he was at capturing the essence of dogs.  They often appeared with his subjects; entangled, sleeping, head and limbs heavy, with an insolent gaze.  Supposedly Freud liked their arrogance and the way they relaxed his subjects and allowed him to see the animal in them.  He was known to quote T.S. Eliot's Preludes:

I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.

Today, writer Gerry Cordon has posted a beautiful tribute to Lucian Freud and his dogs here.  In 2007, I wrote about Lucian Freud's dog art, his Grandfather Sigmund Freud's relationship to his dogs, and his daughter Bella's dog-love here.  See more photos of Lucian Freud's studio and his dogs by David Dawson here.

 

 

Lucian Freud's Painting of his Dog Pluto's Grave by David Dawson

Rest in peace.

Stephen Huneck Sale to Save Dog Mountain

 

 

Farming is Hard Work by Stephen Huneck

When Vermont dog artist Stephen Huneck took his life in January of 2010, he was facing financial hardships.  Sadly, his widow, Gwen, is still struggling to keep alive Huneck's legacy: Dog Mountain, Dog Chapel, and the 150 acre dog park open to dog lovers from around the world.

In response to a $35,000 real estate tax bill due, Gwen has launched the biggest sale ever of Stephen Huneck's art.  With the coupon code SAVE you will receive 55% off all original limited edition woodcut prints, including the framing.   Visit the Stephen Huneck Gallery at Dog Mountain website for more information.  There is also a donation option where you can contribute whatever amount you want.

Thank you, Meagan, for letting me know about this fundraiser.