Dogs I've painted on T-shirts over the years.

I realised I hadn't put any art of Sally on my last post.  Sadly, I only have one painting I did of her, which was on a  T-shirt I did for Andrew for Christmas while she was alive.


Here's the t-shirt I did for Andrew with Sally, Tam and Buffy on it.

It was only while scanning it up that I realised it had Buffy's cute spotty front feet showing on the side there! 


While looking for the photo of that, since the shirt itself has long ago worn out (a definite disadvantage of putting your art on clothing!) I hunted out a little album I have of some of the art I've done over the years that went to other people.  I'd forgotten about some of these paintings I did on T-shirts for people, but I thought you might like to see them.

I think this Staffy was for a work mate of Andrew's.
 

      
I wasn't much in the habit of doing progress shots in those days, but for some reason we did take photos of this next one as I went.  Two more Staffies!  You can see I developed a technique on the dark t-shirts of painting first in white to allow me to really bring the work out at the end.  It stopped the later applications of paint from sinking into the fabric and disappearing.  Bit spooky really!   

One dog done!

Two dogs and background done.

Then I was asked to do a copy of this painting of Otterhounds on a t-shirt.

The original is a watercolour by John Sargent Noble, link for this photo here if you'd like a print.  :)

This was my attempt at a copy.  The dark t-shirt changed things a lot, but even looking back at it now, I think I did ok.

The lady it was for has Goldies now, and had Gordon Setters back in Scotland, but I never found out why she wanted Otterhounds!  I think I did her a painting of a Gordon Setter at some point too, and also she won a painting from me for a trophy for a retrieving trial once.  Ah yes, here it is!  I did their lovely boy Dante, though not on a t-shirt!
    

Gee, can't seem to find a photo of the Gordon Setter painting.  Wonder if I ever took one?

Funny how you can spend so long on paintings and then forget that you ever did them.  Lucky I kept photos of most of them!

In case you are wondering, my first two weeks of writing on my next book, Heroic Plans, has gone to schedule, as the word count as of finishing writing today was 11007.  It's fun to be back writing in the horse world, and I am enjoying being inside Tam's head.  Tam was a side character in Cunning Plans and this time she gets to have the spotlight.  There's a lot more going on inside Tam than I knew when I began!  Such is the experience of a novelist: Those characters take on lives, and thoughts, of their own!        

Dogs of My High Pack: Sally

I nearly didn't do a post about Sally, because I knew it would make me cry, even though it's been more than twelve years. She wasn't yet two when she became separated from us on a bush walk and was hit by a car while we were still out looking for her, expecting her to turn up any second.  It was without a doubt one of the worst days of our lives and I'll probably never be totally over her loss. 

But then I thought, No, hang on, it's not fair to Sally to ignore her life, or to write a sad post about her either.  We called her our Sunshine Girl, and that's exactly what she was.  In her short life, she gave us so much joy, and we gave her so much joy too.  So, here is our lovely Sally, Sunshine Girl.

The first time we saw Sally, she was about six months old.  She needed a new home, and someone had brought her along to an Easter camping weekend for retrieving people to see if anyone might like to take her in.  We loved her.  How could you not love this face?

 However, we had our two GWPs, who were only one and two at the time, and we really didn't need another dog, did we?  Anyway, someone else would fall in love with her and take her.  Except they didn't, and we heard she was still needing a new home.  Not that she was a rescue:  Her breeder had kept her but was now downsizing.  She had her papers and all and was in no danger.  Still, we couldn't quite put her sweet, cheery character out of our minds.

So, next thing we knew, we had a third dog!  We took the GWPs and Sally to the beach so they could get to know each other in a neutral place and tire themselves out a bit, and then we brought her home, still damp from the sea.

From the very first day, she had a way of getting the two Wires to play with her in a way they never did with each other alone, not before Sally or after her.

Chasey games, 

 and tuggy games.

   

She loved to swim like most Goldies, and in those days we were well and full of energy, so she got to go to all sorts of fun places every week.

She even went in a couple of novice retrieving trials, and we were training her ready for obedience. She had that lovely way positively-trained Goldies have of heeling while lifting their front feet up in a dancing step every stride. It's an adorable sight!

She came visiting with us and everyone loved her.

She was so funny and full of joy.

And she was a snuggler. Oh yes she loved to cuddle.

We called her Long Short Sally because she was indeed long and short!

 

She grew into such a beauty.
 

And she completed our family.

You know, I love the infinite variety of purebred dogs, but sometimes I wonder why we dog people don't all have Golden Retrievers, at least one!  They just radiate such sweetness and happiness, it makes you happier to be around them.  :) 

 I wonder if there might be another Goldie in our future?