Wordless Wednesday

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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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A Trio of Greys

This morning I delivered three greyhound portraits to a client who also happens to run the Greyhound Friends for Life (GFFL)'s rescue facility in Auburn, CA. The facility is wonderful and they've improved it further since I was last there. It's not open to the public, but they usually have an open house or play day a couple of times a year - check the events calendar for dates. Of course, if you're interested in adopting a wonderful greyhound (or grey/sighthound mix) they have some really nice dogs available there or at other GFFL facilities.

Each portrait is 8" x 8" in watercolor on Yupo, with a little bit of color pencil. The color schemes were chosen to work together - I used shades of purple as a unifying color for the dogs' darkest areas. The body colors - yellow, blue or orange - are what the client selected to match each dog's personality. The backgrounds all have blue in them and two of them have green in varying amounts. I took photos of the paintings at various stages of progress.


"Swaps" - finished portrait


"Swaps" - reference photo


This is over halfway done. The background and ears are finished and I've blocked in the colors of the dog, but need to work on the blending of the brindle pattern and add detail.



I've blended most of the brindle pattern by pushing paint around, lifting it and adding more of both purple, yellow and orange. The arrow points to an area that still needs work.



"Lulu" - finished portrait


"Lulu" - reference photo


Here I've done the background and have blocked in most of the purple areas. The ears are mostly finished. The white area is the unpainted Yupo.



Nearing completion, but still need to add detail and more blue in her face.



A detail of the finished portrait. Some of the small, fine marks around her eye are color pencil.



"Ace" - finished portrait


"Ace" - reference photo

I posted in progress photos and details of Ace's portrait last year, see them here.

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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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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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