I love dogs.

I also love watercolors.

Whenever I am on vacation or traveling, I carry my watercolors along and when it was possible, also Missy, my little Maltese.

Missy just passed away at 17.5 years of age. She is greatly missed. I gave her the nick name ART DOG since came to my studio almost every day.

She loved visiting galleries and studios which she viewed from her carrying bag.

She was always quiet and polite until one day at Gagosian Gallery she stood up in her bag and said a kind of "RAWRRRRR" growl. The security guard said, "Hmmm, seems like she likes these."

They were the gigantic Last Supper paintings by Warhol. It was true! I responded, "they are the first thing she has liked all day." She really responded to Warhol. 

I let her walk the hallway at my studio and she always visited David Krut Gallery and liked their shows. They often have floor pieces she could walk up to and sniff.

She was fond of the people who work there and they knew she was respectful of art. 

She also really told me about my own work. If I was working on the floor on a large piece, she usually walked around it, if she liked it.

If she did not like it, she walked in the middle and lied down or ran around on top of the canvas or collage, messing it up. She was always right. Trust your dog!

I began reflecting on artworks about dogs: David Hockney, Tiepolo, Warhol, Rembrandt; and I thought, wow, Art Dogs are everywhere!

Other favorite Art Dog paintings of mine are, Buy a Dog, Ma'am? 1860 by Richard Ansdell, English painter, (maybe because there is a Maltese in the painting) and the Futurist painter, Giacomo Balla's, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912.

I believe that artists throughout history enjoyed the company of dogs. Painting them was simply the desire to work with a tender, loving subject and create works with formal compositions in an informal manner. Dogs inspire an old fashioned tradition mixed with personality; both theirs and the artist's.

For more information, see the article in the New York Times, Arts section January 10, 2012. Sit. Stay. Good Art. Also the exhibition catalog Best in Show, The Dog in Art from Renaissance to Today, Yale University Press. Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Conn. 2006 and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2007

This is a new direction for my website. Here I work directly from life, the dog is within inches of me. I observe them as they sleep, usually. Sometimes they get up and move, so I need to work quickly, which is why I work best in watercolors.

Suki and Kazi belong to my Dad and step-mother, Marfie, in Florida. They are a brother and sister Japanese Chins. I love them and they like posing for me, as you can see.

I never work from photographs. I believe the senses are all involved with art making and in the case of dogs and lobsters, the closer the better.

I hope you enjoy this new addition to my website. These latest works continue my ongoing love relationship with nature and animals. From the Rhinoscimento series involving endangered rhinos in 2000 to the endangered honey bee works over the past 5 years, dogs and lobsters are all a part of my heart and my art.

If you would like a painting of your dog please write for information.