Aren't Lauri Luck's dog paintings perfect for the first day of Spring? They capture that feeling of wanting to take an extra-long walk, but being happy to get back to a home with lots of blankets.
I especially love her painting of the dogs under the table filled with paints. Every dog artist knows that point of view. Luck got it just right.
Lauri Luck lives in Sonoma County, California. See more of her work at James Snidle Fine Arts and on her Facebook Page.
My idea for International Women's Day today was to feature several women dog artists from around the world. LACMA's current exhibition In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States seemed like a good place to look for some. That's where I discovered Dorothea Tanning. And that's where I stopped looking. Her 101 years of creating sums up everything I wanted to say about women and art and fearlessness and making choices and sacrifices.
I am embarrassed to say that I had never heard of her. But she knew people weren't hearing about her the same way they were hearing about her husband, Max Ernst. People weren't carving her name in history, even though they were living the same life. She expressed this in a poem:
Many years ago today
I took a husband tenderly
This simple human gentle act
Seen as a hard decisive fact
By all who dote on category
Did stain my work indelibly
I don’t know why that is
For it has not stained his
The Daily Telegraph writes in her obituary, "It is, perhaps, no surprise that Dorothea Tanning consistently refused to have children and instead lavished her attention on Pekingese dogs."
It is no surprise to me that her Pekingese dogs show up in her work.
Learn more about Dorothea Tanning's extraordinary life here.
William Secord always has a something special during the week of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in NYC. This year, over 150 animal-themed works (mostly dogs) from the Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge Collection are on view at his gallery. Sales from the exhibition benefit the organization founded by Mrs. Dodge in 1939, Saint Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center in Madison, New Jersey.
Mrs. Dodge is a legend in the purebred dog world. She founded the Morris and Essex Kennel Club in 1927, and bred and imported some of America’s most important English Cocker Spaniels, German Shepherds, Bloodhounds, Pointers, Setters and Schipperkes, among others. She is also the first woman to judge Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. You can view the exhibition online. Here are some of my favorites:
The Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge Collection at William Secord Gallery runs until March 24, 2012.
In response to yesterday's post about my visit to the shelter, I received so many notes of encouragement. I am very grateful. Here is one from Ontario dog artist, Kit Cutting…
Hi Moira,
I just read your article about volunteering at the shelter and was very touched. You might remember that I am a foster parent for dogs. We have had many dogs come and go from our home. When I first started it was hard to see them go, but I knew each dog was not for me. One day a big black Newfoundland Lab cross came in. For me it was love at first sight. Buddy pined for his owner for 3 months (the usual time is a week). My husband and I tried to find Buddy a home. "He is too big, he's too old, he smells," (Newfys have an odor) the adopters said. No one wanted him. Every day I would lay down and cuddle this unwanted dog. Every day he would get up and move away. Then one day he came over to me and put his big shovel head in my lap. I slowly rubbed his head all over as he pressed it into my lap. That was it! I loved him first but he picked me, and stayed
You will know…
Kit Cutting
P.S. we lost Buddy last spring at age 12. I still miss him.
To see Kit Cutting's dog paintings visit her website.
London-based artist Georgia Fiennes’s website is called Very Fine Animals. How typically understated — British — for such spectacular work. Click through to see her cows hanging from chandeliers, giraffes in tea cups, and bejeweled pelicans. You can commission a Georgia Fiennes original of your very fine animal here.
See more at Georgia Fiennes Very Fine Animals.
Via Miles to Style.
I've been meaning to write about Nevada City, California artist Eileen Blodgett since August when I met her at a local show and discovered dogs in her work. I had admired her art since I first saw her Queen of Hearts, #2 in the ASiF (Artists' Studios in the Foothills) "Art of Love" show here in February. She won first prize.
During our chat last August, Eileen explained how the Queen of Hearts, #2 was one of a series of the 52 card deck that she began when she turned 52. She confessed it was a much larger undertaking than she had expected. Several years had passed and she was not even at the half-way point. But, because she does not go in order of suits or numbers, the experience of being drawn to a certain card and discovering its meaning has been endlessly inspiring to her as an artist and a person. Like getting a Tarot reading before embarking on a new project. As a Tarot card reader myself, I spent a while circling her booth and turning her card rack in my own trance before picking the Ten of Diamonds to purchase. She graciously waved away my money and told me it was a gift.
Then, she turned over the card and showed me its meaning written on the back…
One phase of life is ended and another is about to begin. A journey combines business and pleasure and will bring a reward. Off with the old and on with the new, fear not new beginnings. The Titanic was built by professionals, but the Ark was built by a volunteer. Go ahead, try whatever it is that is calling you.
I was teary-eyed and elated. The week before, I had mentally shut down some projects that weren't working for me to make room for new for new ones, scary ones, I had less confidence in myself about accomplishing. This card and this artist were telling me to go for it. I accepted the gift and the wisdom. Then, Eileen said that this was the first card she ever created. The first in her own 52 card project. The one that opened the door to years of inspiration, direction, accolades, and compensation. How perfect, I tried to tell her. How grateful, I tried to show her. I don't know if she understood. But it mattered to me on many levels and the Ten of Diamonds hangs framed on my wall, its printed message posted in my art studio, a daily reminder to "fear not…and go ahead." Thank you, Eileen.
Now some more dogs…
Eileen Blodgett will be at the Nevada City Artisans Festival next weekend at the Miners Foundry, November 25 through November 27, 10am – 5pm, admission is $3. This show is a 35 year-old tradition and the quality of artists are excellent. There is also live music, foood, drinks, and a fire in the fireplace. Like the tulips of Ananda it is one of the events that drew me here.
Visit Eileen Blodgett's website to purchase originals and prints online.
Also, speaking of Noah volunteering to build the Ark, we are looking for volunteers to help decorate the Nevada City Miners Foundry for the holidays on Tuesday November 22, Adults 9am – 12pm and children welcome from 12pm – 3pm. If you can't make it, but would like to sponsor a tree or a wreath or an amaryllis flower. Or donate something from our wish list, please email me.
Information about the Miners Foundry Decorating Schedule and Wish List.
Here is our Pinterest inspiration board. I call it "miners first Christmas chic."
Leigh Jackson of Noisy Dog Studio started her career as a pet portrait artist in 1998 when she fell in love with a Boston Terrier named Hugo. Since then, she has followed her instincts as a self-taught painter to develop her own "nose first" style. Her charming use of color and composition and her ability to work from photographs make her work perfect for gift giving.
Leigh is graciously offering free shipping for a commissioned work or for any print or painting in her shop. Simply enter DOGARTTODAY in the "discount code" box when you checkout. Also, Leigh has recently added goats, horses, cows, and birds (I think her storks would be great images to use for a baby shower) to her repertoire. Visit her shop at Noisy Dog Studio to find the perfect gift for the dog lover, farmer, or aviphile on your holiday shopping list.
Visit Leigh Jackson's Noisy Dog Studio for more information.
I’ve been saving Susan Ritz’s work for fall, which officially arrived this morning at 5:05 am EST. I tend to think of watercolors en plein air, but Susan brings them inside the gate and the home where she makes them cozy and comfortable. The fabrics, the cushions, the shadows, even the the dogs’ internal dialogues, all have dimension in her work. You can tell what each one is thinking and feeling. It’s interesting to compare her paintings to Mary Ludington’s photographs from yesterday. Primal animals vs. domestic pets. The duality of dogs, continually challenging us, just like the seasons.
To buy a print or commission a portrait visit Susan Ritz Art.
Seattle-based artist Nancy Schutt is the winner of this year's Mutt Lynch Winery – Dog Art Today Wine Label Contest with her entry "Out of Reach." Nancy has a BFA from Colorado State University and an MFA from the University of Oregon. Before devoting herself to painting dogs, she was courtroom artist, a drawing instructor, and a general contractor. She will be joining us at this year's Mutt Lynch Winery Dog Days of Summer event in Sonoma on August 6, 2011 to unveil the wine that was inspired by her winning entry. She will also be selling prints, sketching dogs, and signing bottles of "Out of Reach." To me, Nancy is one of the most inspiring dog artists working today. I think her use of color, composition, and, most of all, humor, are simply brilliant. I am so pleased to share her work and her process with you in this studio spotlight. — Moira McLaughlin.
How did you get started as a dog artist?
If one wants to be an artist, it's very difficult figuring out what to do with that desire and how to make a living with it. I started out painting metaphorical images that came to me (some of which are in my Early Work Gallery on my website), but one day I did a watercolor of my sister's dogs, and my mother said, "Honey, you could make money doing this." Magic words to an artist! I painted the dogs of my friends and had a show at a small gallery in Seattle, and people called me asking for paintings of their dogs. I showed in cafes for years to get commissions. Now I primarily get business through my website, and often never meet the dogs or people.
Tell me about your studio.
I built this studio in my backyard ten years ago. I mean I built it with hammer and nails and the help of two teenagers. No rent!
What is your favorite medium and why?
Acrylic on canvas or board. I like how it dries quickly and I can rework an area fairly soon. I like the vividness of the color. I like that though it is not entirely benign, acrylic paint is fairly non-toxic, and because it is water based, I use no solvents.
How would you describe your art?
Colorful, playful, humorous. Hockneyesque. David Hockney is my favorite painter. My initial goal was to paint dogs like David Hockney paints interiors, or swimming pools, or landscapes. It shows, but now the paintings dictate themselves rather than strive to be similar to those of another artist.
I am most concerned with color and composition. The dogs are a wonderful vehicle for allowing me to create color compositions that have meaningful content as well as energetic color relationships. For me, the dogs are important and portraying them in all of their uniqueness is the main purpose of the paintings, but I spend most of my time on a painting working out the color composition. Colors are capable of creating a three dimensional illusion just by their relationships to each other. To the human eye, colors may reach forward or extend back into a painting, and this motion creates a pulsation of energy in the painting. That is the heartbeat of the painting, and making it visible, rhythmic, harmonious, enticing, is the ultimate objective for me.
Please share three of your favorite pieces and why you chose them.
I chose these three because they are some of my most recent works, and two of them incorporate people, which is a new direction for me. Also, the one entitled Bob, Fay, and Polo is a portrait of one of my favorite artists, Fay Jones, who lives and works in Seattle and whose work I greatly admire.
You have over 30 "bad" dogs on your website. How did you select which one to submit to the Mutt Lynch Winery – Dog Art Today Wine Label Contest with the theme of "naughty" this year?
I was working on a series of paintings of dogs doing things that I found humorous, though to them they are just being dogs. Then, I actually painted Out of Reach specifically for the contest, based on a similar painting I did previously. Of course in Out of Reach, the dog isn't after the wine, which kind of amused me too, since we humans would find the wine a more valuable prize. So it's just a bit askew that this image is for a wine label with a dog theme, but to the dog it's all about the butter.
My Chihuahua, Pablo, always amuses me how he tries to get his nose up to counter top level where things are happening. But, no matter the effort behind the stretch, he can only reach so far. That doesn't stop him from trying again next time! Dogs are pretty hilarious really, so like us in their behaviors but with none of the subterfuge, or shame, or concern for polite company. Their blatant efforts to get what they want without hiding their true intentions can be very funny. To a human, crawling under a table for a micro-crumb of cookie or rummaging through garbage might feel a bit degrading, even if we really wanted something that was there. To a dog it's the most sensible thing in the world to just go after it. I had a dog before Pablo who was CRAZY for balls. I can't imagine having to be so forceful in my NO MOREs with a human who was after me to do something for them. It used to crack me up how insistent she was even after strong rejections.
What are your thoughts about winning the contest?
So fun! What a treat to have one's artwork on a wine label! And as a person running a small business, it's wonderful marketing and exposure for me. The wine isn't available in Washington State, so I will do what I can to help find a distributor and hopefully see it on the shelves of some of my favorite shops. And many thanks to you, Moira, for the brilliant idea of having this contest and to Mutt Lynch Winery for making it a reality. The contest has brought many artists out into the public eye.
Would you like to share any upcoming projects or goals for the future?
I have recently been interested in painting multiple dog portraits that include the humans in the painting. Personal environments have always been a part of my paintings, which I think it part of what makes my work unique. The humans are certainly a part of that environment too, and including them brings another level of interest to the piece.
Otherwise, it's always the same project — trying to make a living as an artist. I will continue primarily doing commissioned paintings, but I will soon be offering a new line of prints on my website which will be much less expensive than anything I am currently offering. It would be wonderful to create more wine labels! And always in my mind is the idea of a book, but it's still brewing.
And finally, is your Chihuahua and muse, Pablo, named after a famous artist?
Yes, a verrrrry famous artist.
Thank you, Nancy, for sharing your work. You are a true inspiration to all dog artists, including me.
Mutt Lynch Dog Days of Summer:
Date: August 6, 2011
Time: 11:00am – 4:00pm
Ticket Price: $20 if purchased online here before August 4. $25.00 at the door. A portion of admission and sales will benefit the Healdsburg Animal Shelter
Location: 602 Limerick Lane, Healdsburg, CA 95448
Dogs on leashes are welcome
For more information visit Mutt Lynch Winery.
To order a bottle or case of Out of Reach after it is released on August 6, 2011 click here.
Visit Seattle dog artist Nancy Schutt's website.
Photo of Nancy and Pablo by Seattle family photographer Anita Nowacka.
This Portrait of Colonel John Bullock by Thomas Gainsborough will be auctioned at Christie's Old Masters and British Paintings Sale in London on July 5. It is estimated to sell for $5,596,500 – $7,995,000.
I thought it only fair to include some Redcoat dog-love before I feature early American dog art tomorrow in honor of our Revolution.
Via Christie's.