a leonberger

www.rijkmuseum.nl
Jonkheer P.A. van den Velden Bequest, The Hague

Leonbergers are large dogs (males run 110-170 lbs.), known for their intelligence and gentle dispositions.  You can see that in this chalk and watercolor portrait by the Dutch artist Otto Eerelman, who was particularly known for his work with dogs.

the roommate

www.rijksmuseum.nl, , J.W.E. vom Rath Bequest, Amsterdam

According to this artwork's page at the Rijksmuseum, when business heir Edwin vom Rath's (Dutch; 1863-1940) parents both passed away he lived in the family mansion with only his pug for company.  Here's a watercolor portrait of the pug by Dutch painter Conradijn Cuneaus circa 1890-95, and I must say this pup does look like good company. Vom Rath's family had built a fortune from their sugar business; he himself remained unmarried and childless, and was a generous patron to Amsterdam's cultural scene.

year of the dog by zen brush

image copyright and by kindest permission of seiko morningstar

Here is a happy Shiba Inu offering a play bow so that you'll come and celebrate the Year of the Dog with him.  If, like me, you love Japanese ink paintings, you'll love this messenger - and the rest of the work by his creator, Zen monk Seiko Morningstar.  Deceptively simple, but full of spirit and life force, Zen ink painting offers you immediate connection with its subjects.  You see the essence of flower, of tree, of wave, of dog.  Very refreshing and freeing. 

Have a look at the playful beings on offer at Seiko's shop, ZenBrush.

Would you like to learn a little more about this style of painting?  This essay at the Metropolitan isn't a bad place to start.

Seiko mentioned to me that it's an Earth Dog year:

The Year of Earth Dog begins Feb. 16, 2018 (Chinese New Year) and lasting to Feb. 4, 2019. The Dog is the eleventh in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign and those born in the Dog years are People born in the Year of the Dog are usually independent, sincere, and loyal friends.

I'll be reaching out again around then, but it's never too soon to wish you all joy and peace for the new Year of the Dog.

the dog jackson by emily hackbart

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

I admit it, I seem to be on a watercolor kick this week, and here's my latest pleasure: the pet portraits created by Missouri artist Emily Hackbart.  Simple and clarified, her portraits are a distillation of cuteness and life force.  Jackson, above, is my pick to showcase, but I'd recommend you also check out...oh, how about Felix and Tabitha, or Delila? 
Here's Emily on her work and herself:
***
I'm Emily Hackbart, the owner and operator of The Paper Woodland. I LOVE drawing and painting more than anything, and love to share my work in hopes it will bring a smile to your face! :)
I grew up on a farm in Northern California and spent most of my time with my animal friends, playing with them and drawing them.
My style developed over time, I mostly did more realistic pencil sketches and pen and ink drawings when I was growing up. It wasn't until I went to college that I first tried watercolor. I took a beginning watercolor class and instantly fell in love! It quickly became my favorite medium.
I graduated from college with a BFA in Art, and promptly became a flight attendant, lol. I did a little art here and there for the next several years, but nothing serious. In the meantime I married an amazing man, and had two sweet babies. When I was on maternity leave with my second son, I decided I didn't want to go back to work as a full-time flight attendant, and so The Paper Woodland was born! It has been an amazing, wonderful journey, and besides my family, is my greatest passion in life!
I now live on a big farm in Missouri with my husband and three adorable little boys. Everyday is filled to the brim with animals and farming and little boys, but at night I love nothing more than to sit at my desk and draw and paint little illustrations that are inspired by the life I live.
It is a full, busy life, and I love every minute of it! ♥

***

Joyful words from a joyful creator.  Want a portrait done but you're not a dog or a cat?  You're in luck, human.  Check out The Paper Woodland.

basil cat by florandfawn

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artists

Here's Basil the cat, surrounded by orange poppies.  You might think they're reflecting onto his fur, but no - he's a grey tortie, and he comes by those orange whispers in his fur naturally.  (There are so very many ways to be a tortoiseshell.  Ever seen this extremely well-detailed page at messybeast.com?) This delicate watercolor is by Karen Eland and Katie Daisy of Bend, Oregon, who offer their creations at Flor & Fawn.  Their bright, pretty work shows all kinds of creatures framed in stylized flowers and greenery.  It feels to me a bit like a modern take on Art Deco flowers. I liked Basil specially because of the roots stretching out under his grassy seat.  Even our house friends are connected to the greater natural world, and we are, too.

a little black kitten by agnes bodor

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

"I just like cats and drawing them," Seattle artist Agnes Bodor writes.  It shows, particularly in her watercolors of black cats.  With well-handled balance between controlling the paint and letting it do what it wants, Bodor models and shapes even the most sable feline.  You can easily see the way light hits shiny fur, and the way legs bunch up when a cat assumes the loaf position or turns to investigate something.  The watchful kitty above is one of my favorite items in her Etsy shop. Here's another one you should see, but ah, you must also see and appreciate this white cat.

dog portrait by joanne jarry

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

Asleep or thinking dog thoughts?  I like how this deft watercolor by Canadian artist Joanne Jarry leaves it open for interpretation with this interesting vantage point.  Look at the crisp bluish shadow, and the way the brown fur is washed down to white to give modeling and highlight to the dog's form.  Beautifully executed.  Jarry does pet portrait commissions, and at her Etsy shop you can see a wide variety of them. 

catnap

CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Somewhere in the files of the Wellcome Library you'll find "A Sleeping Cat," a Japanese work in gouache dating to the 19th century.

feline fine with tessa worley...and a Pet Museum announcement!

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

Eugene artist Tessa Worley has a light, clean-lined, joyful style.  I find it a perfect mix of modern approach and timeless sweetness, as you see above in her print "Feline Fine."  (Have a look at this Gainsborough series of cat studies for the timeless part! See what I mean?  Are you feline fine too?  Then you can pick up this happy print at Worley's Etsy shop, Fox and Bear Paper Co.)

That is why she was my final artist of choice for the newest Pet Museum project - pet votives based on the 7-day saints' candles.  Though you could light these in memory of a beloved dog or cat, they also serve perfectly for a new-puppy gift, or simply because your pet makes you happy.  Shine a little light!  Here's Worley's perfect work, two watercolors that I commissioned from her specially:

copyright 2017 the pet museum 

copyright the pet museum

The back label is also a work of art.  I'll post that tomorrow or Sunday.

I asked Tessa Worley about her work, and here's her statement:

Watercolor and illustration are a type of creative therapy for me. More specifically, illustrating animals brings so much joy to my everyday life. I feel lucky to do what I do and get so much fulfillment out of the various projects I have my hands in. This project with The Pet Museum meant a lot to me because I, like so many others, have experienced pet loss and the lasting devastation that comes with that. These votives are a thoughtful way to remember our old friends and a reminder to stay in the present moment with the animals that are still with us.

These watercolors, immediate, simple, heartfelt, were exactly what I wanted.  My great thanks to Tessa Worley!  Stay tuned, all.

tgif

thanks vintage printable (PD)

Yes, it's Friday....time to come home after work, take a bath and do your own thing. This illustration from an 1869 book titled Les chats: histoire, moeurs, observations, anecdotes (Cats: History, morals, observations, anecdotes) is based on a watercolor by the great Swiss cat painter Gottfried Mind.

sit a spell

photo credit: Yale University Art Gallery (PD)

Here's Edwin Austen Abbey (American, settled in England; 1852-1911), taking a break from his usual images of Shakespearean plays and polished literary illustrations.  Here, in "Woman Holding a Lap Dog" (watercolor, undated) he's clearly enjoying the play of white drapery and dog against the vibrant contrast of rosy beige and (a window?) deep blue.  The dog has something fascinating to see; the tilt of the woman's head has an immediate look to it, as though Abbey caught her looking over in amusement.  A fresh, pleasant piece for this dark wet morning.

more like "dog and children"

By Paul Klee (1879-1940) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In "Kinder und Hund" (Children and Dog, watercolor and pen dated 1920) Paul Klee captures a group of little beings by personality.  There's the openness and innocence of the round-faced baby at front and center, and to the right two more querulous siblings looking askance at whatever this is Klee's doing.  At left, is that an older sister?  She seems on the cusp of womanhood, her lips full and eyes wide.  

Then dead center top, equal to his humans and full of alert presence:

You can't look away from that face; he's the heart of the group, and you keep circling round and coming back to him.  Klee's always good for that.  To Klee, the household animals were always complete citizens and family, and I love him for it.

hairy eyeball 1849

thanks wikiart.org (PD)

No difficulty getting this model to stay put: he's perfectly comfortable, thank you very much.  Dogs have been giving us that sidelong eyeball since time immemorial.  In this deft "Study of a Dog" of 1849, the great English landscape watercolorist David Cox gives us a timeless glimpse of a friend.
Cox was a member of the Birmingham School of landscape artists, a group that brought a personal character to the natural scenes and objects portrayed, investing their subjects with a feeling of individuality.*  Naturally this would work even better for a dog, the prime living interface between man and nature.  Whether the golden brown atmosphere around the dog is meant to be straw, or reflected firelight, the effect only reinforces the snug feeling he must be enjoying; we feel it too.

*Did you know Birmingham has a long history as an arts town?  I didn't.  You should read this.

yum

Stella Kramrisch Collection, 1994, www.philamuseum.org. 1994-148-556. believed PD in good faith

You'd think this beast would look happier about snagging this massive shrimp, but maybe Cat here with his quizzical eyebrows realizes he's serving as a bad example.  Painted round 1900 in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta),  this Indian watercolor illustrates a common subject of parody.  Orange and black cats with a mouthful of somebody else represent those holy folk who say they've renounced the pleasures of the flesh, but they haven't.

heart full of hedgehogs

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

"I love any kind of painting, but I've got a soft spot for watercolors," says artist Annette Jones of Manchester, England. This original watercolor, "Hedgehog Heart," makes a wonderful piece for Erinaceus europaeus (European hedgehog) fans. The already tidy teardrop shape of the critter makes for a lovely assemblage into a heart-shaped puzzle, while still keeping a sense of the inquisitive nature of the beast.  "My work is mostly inspired by nature," Annette wrote me recently.  "I like to paint things with life and personality, and to bring out the individual characters in my subjects."  You can see more of Annette's happy, bright work at her Etsy shop, AnnetteJonesArt.

skate free lil hedgie

image copyright and by kindest courtesy of Shirley Harvey Art

Montreal artist Shirley Harvey has created a colorful miniature world in which domestic and wild collide.  Anything can happen in her bright little watercolors, and does, as you see above in  Hedgehog on a Skateboard.  She writes, "I love life to intrigue, surprise, delight, make me chuckle and be beautiful. I believe wholeheartedly art should do the same."  Visit her Etsy shop, ShirleyHarveyArt, and she'll make that happen for you.  Will it be the frog on a hopper toy? (Do they make those for grownups?  I really miss those.)  The Segway rat?  The karaoke hamster (he's so soulful!)?  What does freedom and pleasure look like for these little beings?  Shirley Harvey makes you realize that it may or may not be a tiny skateboard, but you wish them to have that joy, whatever it may be.

it's friday. here's "sunday morning"

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist  

I always say black cats are the hardest to portray, whether via photo or brush.  Yet here's "Sunday Morning" by Ontario artist Christy Obalek, an assured watercolor capture of a black kitty sleeping and shining in the sun.  The face is so well modeled that you can see right where the fur texture changes on the nose - that smooth patch right before the nose leather.  Then there's the sleepy puff of the muzzle, bristling with white whiskers.  When I see Veronica sleeping, it's tempting to reach out and rub her muzzle with my fingertip as her breath puffs in and out, and I find I want to do the same here.
Christy Obalek also creates pet commissions, so if you have a black cat you'd like to capture in watercolor for posterity - or a black dog, a white cat, even a couple of hungry kittens - check out her Etsy shop.  And check out her darling rock hyrax.

cats and rain

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

Every day, Elizabeth gets the treat of a brief supervised outdoor playtime.  Unless it rains.  Then she huddles on the doorstop, looking sadly at the wet lawn, the bluest little gray cat in the world.  Here's Athens, Georgia artist Lyn with a watercolor called "Blue Raindrop Kitteh" to show what I imagine Elizabeth's cat soul looks like when it's too soggy to play.  This and many other charming watercolors are available at Lyn's Etsy shop FiggyMoss.
Lyn also creates intimately scaled, immediate nature photography exploring the textures of bark, leaves, flowers, even insects.  The effect is both restful and filled with power - you must go look.

happy mother's day!

thanks wikimedia commons (PD)

Happy Mother's Day to all Museum friends!  

Even if you're not a mom, you have one - our love to her, and to you.

Joseph Crawhall III (British, 1861-1913), Foxhound and Puppies

the reunion

image copyright and by kindest courtesy of the artist

Seattle artist Nakisha says that she has been making animal art ever since she can remember.  Her site proves a sure feel for the structure and spirit of all sorts of animal beings (here's Nakisha.com, and look at this excellent wire cat).  Today I bring you her watercolor The Reunion, in which every individual is a portrait of a real-life rescue bunny.  I love that idea, and I appreciate the gentle Tasha Tudor-like feel in this work.  Notice how the red dishes and flowers pop against the muted pale green setting.  Delicious.

Nakisha's Etsy shop bluedogrose is here.