working like a dog

I’ve been working like a dog lately (is there any other way?) to create pieces to sell at an art & craft show here in Burgau on April 4^th. I’m raising funds for my friends at the animal shelters in the Algarve.  I hope that if any of you are in the area you'll drop by and say hello. The show is at a fabulous café called Tomik. There will be many vendors with splendid wares on offer including stained glass, handmade soaps, homemade chocolates and more. You will even be able to get a manicure or pedicure (or in my case, a pawdicure). At the bottom of this post I've put a link for more information.

Here are some of the pieces I've been working on:

postcard
4" x 6" (10 cm x 15 cm)

Scottie
acrylic on board
8"x 8" (20 cm x 20 cm)

red sentinel
acrylic on board
8" x 8" (20 cm x 20 cm)

I'll have a variety of work for sale including paintings and illustrations; Dogs & Cats of Portugal (Cães & Gatos de Portugal) photographic postcards; relief print cards; hand printed t-shirts; and handmade books with original art on the covers. Prices will range from €1 to €50 so just about everyone can afford to help the hounds.

Boris and the bird
acrylic and ink on board
8" x 8" (20 cm x 20 cm)

dreaming of Paris
acrylic and ink on board
8" x 8" (20 cm x 20 cm)

After the show I may have unsold pieces available to be shipped to folks in Europe and North America. There will be a small window of opportunity for these pieces so check back here after April 4th but before April 14th. I'll post images of the available pieces and payment can be made through Paypal.

Here's the link for more information about the show: https://www.facebook.com/events/785698321512556/

Tchau-wow!

Exhibitionists or artists? Is there a difference?

I just saw a notice for a painting exhibition opening at the No9 Tasca Bar (click the green text for more info) here in the village. It’s this Saturday night at 10. I hope to sneak in and have a look. The paintings are by a man I met here in Burgau a couple of years ago. Last year Michael started painting in acrylics (he had done some painting before but it was theatre set painting which is another thing altogether) and he asked me if I would add a dog to a painting he was planning to do. I was happy to make my mark on his work. He had a particular image in his mind of Murphy, a very handsome and chilled out dog who had been rescued from an animal shelter just a couple of months earlier.

Michael working on another acrylic

We went down to the slipway and had Murphy pose, looking out to sea. The idea was that Murphy was dolphin watching.  So, from the photo we took of Murphy sitting on the slipway, Michael painted the whole scene and when he was finished he handed the canvas off to me and I added Murphy. I was a little nervous working on someone else’s painting so I did a sketch first to get a feel for what I was going to do and also to let Michael see it and be sure that it was going to be okay. 

watercolour pencil preliminary sketch of Murphy

Even though the sketch was done with watercolour pencils, it still gave me a feel for what I needed to do later with the acrylics on Michael’s canvas. Here's the finished painting.

"Dolphin Watching", Michael Fuller & Ruca, acrylic on canvas, 50cm x 60 cm

"Dolphin Watching" detail

I'm hoping everyone at No9 Tasca Bar likes dogs so that I can hang around and have a good look at what Michael's been working on this past winter. Actually, digging up the photos of our collaborative piece and the preliminary sketch has got me itching to do another acrylic so that's my next project. Here’s a little teaser for you. This will be the photo I’ll work from. 

inspiration for my next painting

 Now it's off to tackle some preliminary sketches!

Tchao-wow

a little help for our friends

my skinny friend Tiky and the dog-loving Canadian

I went out to the west coast last week. I wanted to check on a friend of mine I'd seen a couple of weeks ago. She wasn't looking very well when I saw her then. The photo above shows her lapping up some affection from a dog-loving woman from Canada. I think the woman was worried about her too.

My friend's situation is this: She belongs to a woman who spends a lot of time at Restaurante Castelejo. This woman has 16 dogs. They aren't completely free dogs, nor are they collared dogs. They're free to come and go but they choose to stay with the restaurante woman. And she cares for them more or less. Anyway, I went out again last week to see if I could do anything for my skinny friend but she wasn't there. Three of the other dogs were, but they didn't know where my friend was. One of the three there that day was Old-Man-Eyes, a dog I'd met a few years ago. She was pretty skinny then as you can see in these old pictures, and she had a couple of scabs from where ticks had been picked off, so she was looking a little worse for wear.

Old-Man-Eyes, 2008

Old-Man-Eyes, 2008

You can really see why she's called Old-Man-Eyes. She looks old and worn out by worry, but really she's only about six years old, and she doesn't do that much worrying. Her eyes grabbed me so much that I had to do a painting of her.

Old-Man-Eyes,acrylic on canvas, 20cm x 20cm

When I saw her last week she was actually looking quite healthy. She was even a little chubby.

Old-Man-Eyes looking good, 2011

She told me that life has been treating her well these days. I hope the same can be said for my other friend. Maybe I can get the dog-loving Canadian to help me check up on her. I'll be sure to post any updates on the situation.

Tchao-wow,
ruca