Dog as Muse

Dogs are my muse. They make me smile. Even with our currently challenging socio-political time in history, I find myself interrupted from deep thoughts by a goofy dog passing by. Simple pleasures, right? Growing up in NY my family had 3 Lhasa Apsos; Pokey (black and white), Pixie (golden-colored), and Choo Choo (blonde). Pixie was my obedience show dog; Starting at 10 years old I was Pixie's trainer. I loved learning about the dog breeds in my classed at the annual National Dog Show at Madison Square Garden in NYC.  

Fast forward to adulthood... In 2009, my love of dogs lead me to a summer dog sitting gig in my Northern California community, where I cared for a Black Labrador, Jack Russell Terrier, Portuguese Water Dog, Irish Terrier, Chihuahua, and Cairn Terrier. At the time, I wrote a blog series called, "Of Men and Dogs", trying to understand how the personalities of these dogs I cared for reminded me of the men I dated over the years. The intellect, the wild one, sporty one, crazy one, frightened one, the immature one. More on that later.......

​I've always looked as dogs' facial expressions as an immediate reflection of character and temperament. Some dogs are naturally happy (smiling), while others are bashful, sleepy, goofy, curious, clever. With each watercolor portrait I paint, I try to convey the essence of the dog's personality.  As I blog about my dog observations, I hope you will come along with me for the ride.