"Dog-A-Palooza" at the Auburn Art Walk

I'm working on a series of photos for "Dog-A-Palooza", a solo show that opens on April 12th. The show will be part of the Auburn (CA) Art Walk and my friends at Dancing Dog Productions are hosting. Dancing Dog is at 1101 High Street in Auburn. I'll be at the Art Walk on the 12th from 6 - 9 pm. The show runs through approximately June 10th.


This is Idgy, the shop mascot at Dancing Dog. She's a charismatic cairn terrier mix.

I got the idea for this show because I wanted to come up with something that was less time-consuming than my traditional work. After some pondering, investigation and discussions with a couple of other artists, I decided to do a series of photos mounted on boards. I take lots of photos and have a huge reference library, with a large proportion being dogs, so dogs became the subject of the show. In addition, to try and create some additional buzz, I committed to donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale of works at this show to two local dog rescue groups. I'm a supporter of Chako Pit Bull Rescue & A New Hope Animal Foundation (ANH), so I contacted them to make sure they would allow me to use their names in conjunction with this show. Some of the photos in the show are of puppies rescued by ANH and dogs belonging to Chako supporters.


"Snuggly" - Pit bull pups rescued by A New Hope Animal Foundation

To make these pieces, I run the photos through a few gyrations in Photoshop, print them & mount them on an archival 6" x 6" board. I Dremel the edges and ink them, spray the surface with a UV sealer and finally, coat the surface with a couple of layers of acrylic medium. I attach a hanger to the back and the board is ready to hang. No framing needed - another time-saving plus!

While each photo requires its own adjustments to get the look I want, you can see the basic process in this video.


There's also a scratchboard drawing of this little guy, see it in a previous blog post.

I'll have 10 of these photos in the show in addition to a few original drawings/paintings. Although I still have a few pieces to add, you can see the show catalog here. Note cards of the photo images and originals will be available too. Of course, if you are unable to make it to the Art Walk, you can contact me regarding purchase of any of the items in the catalog, including note cards.

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Woofstock!

Woofstock is an annual event in Rocklin, CA that's all about dogs. People bring their dogs and there are vendors with dog-related products. Plus music, food, costume contests & Dachshund races too!

It was a much hotter day than it usually is this time of year, but my friend Sandy & I decided to go anyway. We enjoy photographing the array of dogs that show up and I really wanted to take our new dog Arrow on an adventure. Our border collie, Magpie, has never been thrilled with outings - she's shy and gets stressed by crowds & commotion, so she got to stay home with John and enjoy some alone-time without her new "brother". I was pretty sure Arrow would be fine at Woofstock and I'm thrilled that he didn't prove me wrong. He was a trooper and made it through the day with flying colors. I really want him to be a happy traveling buddy, so this was a great first step.

I was a little distracted by Arrow, so I didn't get as many photos (and even fewer good ones) as I usually do at an event, but I have a few to share. I even forgot to get my bag of kettle corn today - I'm bummed about that.






Happy Apollo is looking for his forever home - find out more at Chako.org





See more in my Flickr album, along with some I took at last year's Woofstock.

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Puppies!!!!

Talk about a fun time! I spent an hour and a half with Lynn Howe of A New Hope Animal Foundation and seven 7-week-old pit bull terrier puppies yesterday morning. It was absolutely delightful! I took tons of photos, cuddled and kissed puppies and laughed at their silly antics. I also really enjoyed talking with Lynn about her organization and what they do to socialize pups and give them a good foundation before they're sent off to new homes.





There are more puppy photos in my Flickr album.

A New Hope also rescues adult dogs, cats/kittens and rabbits and works closely with Placer County Animal Services and other local groups to make these animals more adoptable by socializing them and giving them at least some basic training.


This is the pup that stole my heart! She's a sweetie, but it's also because of her coloring - I love border collies, and we had a BC mix with a patch over his eye.

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A Day at the Western States HorseExpo

Sandy and I spent yesterday at the Western States HorseExpo. In addition to wandering around, taking photos, petting dogs and horses, shopping and eating, we spent some time hanging out the "Dogs Pavilion" for dog-related businesses and rescue groups.

These dogs were at the Lake County Animal Services booth:






Considering we were at HorseExpo, I got surprisingly few decent horse photos. The only horse photos I took were at a Tennessee Walker breed demo. We saw lots of great horses though, including: a mini horse mare and her even "minier" foal - the foal had a very cute spotted rump, a gorgeous palomino quarter horse mare and her chestnut foal - also very cute, mini horses pulling carts, and a barn full of horses from the Grace Foundation that need homes (we petted almost every one of them).



I'd like to say I wanted the horse's ears cropped off, but I'd be lying. We were outside the corner of the arena fence, trying to photograph the horses through the railing as they went by. Still, I like the silver on the bridle and flaring nostrils in this photo - I see potential for an interesting drawing. This horse was a gorgeous dark palomino color.





It was a satisfying day spent with a dear friend, good people and plenty of critters. As much fun as it is to spend time with other animals, I'm always happy to get home and see my two:


Magpie the 8-year-old Border Collie


Bess the 27-year-old Quarter Horse

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Dog Day Afternoon

Today my friend Sandy & I went to the "Wag 'n' Walk" event in Grass Valley at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. Sponsored by AnimalSave (animal rescue) and Lazy Dog Ice Cream, this event was a day of "fun, food & games for dogs and their people". Never ones to miss photo opportunities, we took our cameras to see what kinds of dog photos we could get. We met and petted quite a few dogs, chatted with their owners and took some photos. Most unusual for us, we didn't buy any Lazy Dog ice cream. It's good stuff and we always get some when we go to the Draft Horse Classic at the Fairgrounds. But today, we stopped at South Pine Cafe in Grass Valley for lunch after the Wag 'n' Walk.


Dogs in the obedience demo put on by Top Dog Obedience School


Welsh Corgi - the photo's a little blurry, but the dog's expression is really cute



Bird's eye view of a French Bulldog



Border Collie - this is my favorite photo of the day

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Good Canine Citizens

A couple of times a year, Roseville Dog Owners' Group (RDOG) holds a "Canine Good Citizen® (CGC)" Clinic. This clinic features a local dog trainer who helps dogs and their owners practice and prepare for the CGC test (held at a later date). You can click here to see what the test entails, but basically, it determines if a dog can handle 10 different situations that it might encounter while out in public with its owner. My friend Sandy participated in the clinic with her Australian cattle dog, Red. I tagged along with my camera. Red did really well and I don't think he'll have any trouble passing the test when Sandy puts him through his paces. Our border collie, Magpie, is not yet a canine good citizen. She's shy in social situations, so I need to do more work with her to make her comfortable enough to pass some portions of the test.

Six dogs and their owners attended the clinic. Dana Maroney was the trainer and three members of RDOG were on hand to help with portions of the clinic. Below are some of the photos I took that day.











You can see many more photos from the clinic in my DotPhoto album.

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Really? I Can Chase the Sheep?

My "always up for a dog adventure" friend Sandy and I attended a sheep herding clinic last month. We (and her cattle dog Red) were just spectators, but other folks brought their dogs to either have them evaluated for their potential as sheep herding dogs by Ian Caldicott or to actually have some one-on-one instruction time with Ian (a sheepdog trainer).

It was fun to watch the dogs new to sheep herding figure out that it was ok to chase the sheep and was actually encouraged. Of course, if they're going to make a career out of it, they'll need to learn that there's finesse involved! Ian also worked very closely with the owners/handlers (no matter how much experience the dog had) to teach them that they have to help their dogs understand what to do but to also let the dogs do some of their own thinking. It's a difficult balance and the handler really has to understand not just how the dog tends to work but how sheep move. If you've never watched a well-trained sheep dog do its job, you really must - it's mesmerizing.

The clinic was held at Performance Dogs in Action in Pleasant Grove, CA and coordinated by the Doggon Herding meetup group.

Both Sandy and I took lots of photos and I've posted many of mine in my
DotPhoto album.

Here are some of my favorites:

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A Pig and Some Pooches

This bristly guy with lots of texture is Homer, a pot-bellied pig.


4" x 4" Ink on Scratchboard Drawing





Homer is a gregarious piggy who I met at a local ranch. I knew right away that he'd be a great subject for a scratchboard drawing, so I took quite a few reference photos of him. I started the drawing as a demo piece in one of my scratchboard workshops over a year ago and finished it a couple of days ago.

The original drawing is now at Auburn Old Town Gallery in Auburn CA. Note cards are available in my Bonanzle booth.

I made a print of the drawing to give to Homer's human friends. I knew they were going to have a booth at the local Woofstock event last Sunday, so I figured I could deliver the print, visit some other friends that were going to be at Woofstock and get a few dog photos while I was there.

I got there a bit late but managed to get a few fun photos:


Richard, a large-format French Bulldog who belongs to an ACB volunteer


Bear, a big, friendly and helpful Golden Retriever who belongs to one of the coordinators for NorCal Golden Retriever Rescue


Reina, a sweet Australian Cattle Dog who belongs to the owner of Aunt Cynthia's Bed & Biscuit Inn


A tired Pit Bull. This guy was resting at one of the vendors' booths


Sammy Davis, a champion racing dachshund, expert Frisbee catcher and all-around spunky guy

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Canine Visitors

Our well pump went out on Friday. That meant no water all weekend. It was like camping in our own home (but it wasn't fun). We survived with bottled water, hand sanitizer, pizza for dinner and water in 5 gallon buckets from the pond for flushing toilets. On Saturday afternoon, we visited our dads in Sacramento to take showers and do laundry.

Mark of Tri-County Pump got us back up and running early this afternoon. The old pump had lived 20 years - way beyond the expected lifespan - so we now have a brand new pump. And best of all, we have water again. I can wash my hands whenever I want and no more hauling buckets of water into the house!

In addition to his human assistant, Mark brought his two chihuahuas and his young chocolate lab (Luda) with him. The little tan chihuahua sisters were trotting through the carport when I went out to meet Mark. Luda was in a crate in the back of the truck. I heard him whining and asked about him - Mark wondered if it would be ok to let the dog out. Of course it was ok! Luda made a beeline for our pond - as any water-loving lab would. He ran circles around the property - full of bouncy energy and joy - and he splashed around in the pond a few times. I pulled out one of Magpie's tennis balls for him. I kept Magpie in the house, she's not too sure about strangers, so she was better off staying inside.

Never one to miss a photo opp, I grabbed our little digital camera (as opposed to exposing my D-SLR to a wet and enthusiastic dog) and got some nice shots of Luda eyeing the coveted tennis ball.





I only got photos of one of the chihuahuas, but there's a photo of them with Mark and his wife on this page of their web site.

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Today's Photos

A short post tonight - just wanted to share some photos I took this afternoon.

I stopped by the Old Town Gallery today and as I was walking back to my car, I saw Paco, the basset hound mascot of Totally Cool and asked the shop's owner if I could take some photos of him. I see Paco often, since Totally Cool is right around the corner from the Gallery, but I've never had my camera with me. It was in my car, so I got it and went back. Paco was a good model and I took quite a few photos. Here are two of them:






On the way home, driving past the neighbor's place, his cows and calves were near the road. So I stopped to take some photos of them. Didn't get very good photos of the calves, the were wary and kept their distance, but I got some decent photos of a couple of the cows.

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