It's A Dog Show! I Mean, a Dog Art Show!

I just realized I'd forgotten to announce the Canine Art Guild's latest online show. The CAG is celebrating it's fifth anniversary this year, and I'm proud to be a member. Oops - that reminds me, I also need to send in this year's dues!

All of the paintings are 5 x 5 inches, and there is voting for the People's Choice Award. Have a look through all of the great artwork there, and make sure you pick your favourite! I'm having a hard time deciding, myself - and no, I'm not going to pick my own work!

My contribution to the show is an oil on masonite of my Border Collie, Swish. I adopted Swish through Border Collie Rescue Ontario right about the time Kim Santini and I started throwing around the idea of the CAG. Time sure does fly - I was thinking Swish was five years old, but she was a year and a half when I got her, so she's six! In true Border Collie fashion, however, she doesn't act it! Forever young, it seems - gotta love those BCs.

Don't forget, the April Thirty Horses, Thirty Days is ongoing on its own blog. The first paintings are dry, so I'm going to be adding selling prices to them. Those prices are a limited time sort of thing, because once I start framing them for shows, the price has to go up, no way around that!

Better get going on today's painting!

Canine Competition

Another new painting in the works today. I was hoping to get this one going in time for this year's Art Show at the Dog Show, but I ran out of time. This is a 6 x 8 oil on Raymar canvas panel, featuring an Australian Cattle Dog emerging from the tunnel on an agility course. I love agility - the dogs always look like they're having such a blast. While I've never competed in agility, I used to do it for fun with my Border Collie OTCh Maggie. We even did a fun Rally O (a combination of obedience and agility) match one time - I pulled her out of retirement to do a special Border Collie event, and the old girl pulled of a second!

What you're seeing so far is a very loose, very quick underpainting using Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White. The underpainting isn't quite finished yet, but it's quite close. It's refreshing to be able to work fast like this, not let myself think too much, especially after some of the more detailed work I've done of late. And making a foray back to dogs is always fun too! This one will fit nicely with the upcoming Canine Art Guild "The Pursuit of Happiness" online show, scheduled for June 2009. In the meantime, check out the current show, "The Company Dogs Keep." Be sure to vote for your favourite!

Pleasant Surprises

Best Behaviour 8 x 10 oil on Raphael Linen

The current Canine Art Guild show is titled, "Canine Pot Luck" and the work is fabulous, really great stuff. I can't remember if I posted a link to it here, so I have to apologize for that! Be sure to take a look. Viewers were able to place votes for their favourite work, though my lateness in mentioning this that means that voting has now closed! Okay, so marketing has never been my strong point!

Yesterday I received an email from our inspiring CAG helmsperson, Kim Santini, that my entry, Best Behaviour (remember him?), received an Honourable Mention for People's Choice! With the quality of work in the show, I really was surprised. It's certainly an honour in such esteemed company. Deserved congratulations go to winner Diane Solomon for her piece "Big Brother Watches over Me" and to the other Honourable Mention, Julie Bender. Julie does pyrography - definitely worth a checking out!


Meanwhile, back on the easel...my little 5 x 7 oil on Raphel linen is now complete, varnished and ready to go to the framer. Kat Moore, who owns this gorgeous Shire (named Shine) had generously shared more photos of the big guy and his son, Duelly, so you might be seeing more of these boys. I know I posted an image of this, but as I've scanned it now, I thought it deserved a more accurate picture.

And lest you think I copped out on my weekly landscape committment, I will post this week's effort, even though it's not finished. This is 5 x 7 oil on canvas, tentatively called, "Keenland Quiet." I expect I'll have to pop a horse in there somewhere, though as someone who has worked on the backstretch, it does say something that there are no horses visible. I'll have to think about that one. Any comments?

A Quick Plug ~ New CAG Show Online!

Just a quick post to pass on the news that the latest Canine Art Guild show is now online!

I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't get my act together enough to send entries, which is especially pathetic as the theme for the show is "Black and White"!! I could have a black and white show all my own...I'm surrounded by the "original" Black and Whites (just one of the many names my beloved Border Collies go by, even though they do come in other colours!).


Well, in appreciation of that show I'll illustrate this post with a couple of my own that could have fit the bill. Be sure to take a look, and make your vote for the People's Choice award!