Paintings With Soul

Yesterday got out of hand rather quickly. We are dogsitting for my brother and Bailey got loose. I spent the afternoon tracking her quite literally over the river and through the woods, around and across the lake, until she finally surrendered. I have a mountain of friends and total strangers to thank - my neighbor who selflessly joined in the hunt (Karen, just name your price!), the recruits who phoned in sightings, and the kids and lab-mix who ultimately herded Bailey into exhaustion after almost 3-1/2 hours.   Bailey is the picture of perfect behavior today, but she will not set a foot outside this house without a leash on for the rest of her life. Finnigan also "donated" his collar, so that should she play Houdini again, she'll at least have a local number on her collar.   So that's why there was no painting yesterday - I didn't get into the studio at all. I can count on one hand the number of times this has happened, and I apologize.   It felt great to get in...

WORK IN PROCESS:  "Cairn Kisses," 12" square, terrier portrait of four waggy Cairn Terriers, acrylic on canvasboard. This is a special painting and I don't think I'll have it for very long. Inquiries may come to me .   The days don't get much better than this - glorious sunshine streaming in, nuthatches busily flitting through the studio garden, the dog contented at my feet, and an exciting canvas on the easel.   These happy little critters are all rescued dogs from Calliope Cairn Terrier Rescue . This painting is about half completed - you can see that I've established the form of the four dogs (although one needs a little more work as she's melting off the edge) and begun to model them with broad shapes and strokes of color. I will continue to work in this way, from general to more specific, adjusting and refining and correcting, as the layers of paint build up.   Proceeds from the sale of this painting will help Calliope continue to...

FROM LEFT:  "Cairn Laughter (Jeff)," 6" square and "A Morning Stroll (Jeff)," 5" x 7", each painting a portrait of the million-dollar Cairn Terrier Jeff (so called because of his many vet visits). My client chose "Cairn Laughter," and a regular Dog a Day reader purchased "A Morning Stroll" shortly afterwards. Did you know you too can have preferential purchasing by subscribing to the Painting a Dog a Day newsgroup? Just train your email to fetch the daily paintings, and you'll receive them in your inbox several hours before they get posted to the blog. As always, inquiries may come  to me .   True Cairn fans can order a limited edition giclee (digital print) of "Cairn Kisses," the  Dog a Day painting from May 12th, 2009 . I picked the giclees up at the end of last week and they are beautiful - there's only 25 of them, and when they are gone, they are gone! (Thank you to those who are patiently waiting for me to sh...

"Miri's Memory," 8" x 10", portrait of a rescued Cairn Terrier from Col. Potter Cairn Rescue , from The Gratitude Project . This painting was done in Golden Open acrylics on an Ampersand Geossobord and could be yours for $ 469. As with all the paintings from The Gratitude Project , proceeds from the sale of Miri's painting will be donated to Col. Potter. It's just my way of saying thanks for all the dogs - and people - who's lives are better! I had painted Miri before - she's the lucky Cairn getting all the kisses in this painting from a couple years back. Miri was a puppy mill momma rescue with such a bright spark. She arrived at Col. Potters 2/3rds of a way through a pregnancy, in such poor health that the lives of herself and her litter were endangered. Immediate surgery saved her and 5 of her 6 pups. She enjoyed 4 years with her forever home, years that were far too short but fully lived. She succombed to Cushings last fall, shortly af...