5 Famous Dog Paintings

By Larry Gekiere

Art can be described in many ways. It can be good or bad. It can be modern, post-modern or classical. Art can even be described as inspirational. Despite the many ways there are to describe it, there is no true way to define it. Nevertheless, artists continue to express themselves through their pieces. Some will paint beautiful landscapes and water under the moonlight. Others will create abstract works of art that tell complex stories. Oddly enough, dog portrait artists can fit in both categories. Countless artists have utilized the canine essence in their work. While they have that much in common, each piece attempts to reveal something different about the world.

Dogs Playing Poker
This particular collection is the most well-known dog painting in the United States. Most people don't know that there are actually 15 other pieces that make up the collection. In each of the 16 pieces, different breeds of dogs are sitting at a table for a card game. This classic set of portraits was created in the early twentieth century for a campaign to sell cigars. While it's been a favorite among working class families for years, the original paintings are far too expensive for the average person to own.

The Dog
This painting continues to be admired by artists and art lovers. It depicts a small dog looking upward as it sits behind some sort of land mass. The exact date of its creation is unknown, but it is believed to have been created some time between 1819 and 1823. The artist, Francisco Goya, used the walls in his house to create pieces that depicted intensely dark themes. Nearly 50 years after his death, this and 13 other oil paintings were transferred from the home. It is impossible to understand exactly what Goya was trying to convey, but artists generally consider this painting the first expression of Symbolism in the West.

Saved
Sir Edwin Landseer had a love for the Newfoundland breed. A local Newfoundland, Mile, was known for rescuing children from drowning in the water. In 1856, Landseer used the dog tale as an inspiration for this piece. In the painting, Mile is shown holding a small child in his paws. Landseer was able to touch hearts and minds with his work. It catapulted him into fame.

His Masters Voice
Francis Barraud became the owner of his deceased brother's fox terrier, Nipper. Upon playing recordings of his brother's voice, Barraud noticed Nipper's fascination with the phonograph that played the recordings. He decided to capture the occurrence on canvas, but was initially unable to sell it. However, it was eventually purchased by The Graphophone Company in 1899. The image was used on cabinets, sound recordings and electronics wherever the products were sold.

Dogs in a Kennel
William Hamilton Trood has been regarded as one of the most revered dog painters of his time. Trood's painting is a depiction of hounds behind the gates of a kennel looking out at a robin. He is able to tell a simple story through his typical use of natural elements.

Dog portrait artists have creatively captured the essence of man's best friend for centuries. While some are more popular than others, each piece stands firmly on its own.

Larry is a dog portrait artist in Dallas. He creates artistic interpretations of man's best friend, capturing their unique personality and distinct features. Commission him to have your own masterpiece created and your dog's likeness immortalized on canvas.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Larry_Gekiere

The Dog That Stole My Father's Heart

The dog that stole my father’s heart

If you think love triangles don’t play out in nursing homes, you might need a lesson in geometry, or in aging, or in how the human heart works.

For as long as it keeps ticking, and however strong the attachments it already has are, it’s capable of finding new things to adore.

Which brings us to this sordid tale — one that is also partly uplifting, and, if you want to be all technical about it, also partly shoplifting.

My dog Ace has always been No. 1 in the eyes of my father, a lifelong dog-lover.

My dad was able to quickly detect what a special beast Ace truly is. Watching them snuggle on his couch when we visited always made my insides glow.

For years now, the first thing my father asks when he calls has always been, “How’s Ace?” The first thing he asked me when he came out of a coma, that followed a heart attack, that followed some stomach surgery, was “How’s Ace?” When I visited him in Arizona a few months ago, without Ace, the first thing he asked was, “Where’s Ace?”

Since his lengthy hospitalization, my dad has mostly resided in a skilled nursing facility in Mesa, where, at one point, he was having physical therapy sessions with a dog named Henry, who belongs to one of the therapists. While those sessions are no longer part of his daily regimen, he still sees Henry — full name Henry Higgins— regularly, and apparently they’ve grown quite attached.

According to my sources, after dinner one night last week, my father rolled into the therapy gym unnoticed and snuck off with a photo of Henry that hangs there, planning on taking it back to his sparsely furnished room. It was reportedly his second attempt to steal the framed photo. After getting caught the first time, rolling along the hallway with the picture in his lap, he stuffed it under his shirt the second time.

I found this news upsetting — not because my father was engaging in larcenous behavior, but because I’ve done my best to keep Ace first and foremost in his mind. I’ve made sure his room had a “Travels with Ace” calendar. For his birthday, I sent him a sweatshirt with a giant photo of Ace emblazoned on the front. I’ve supplied him — even though my father’s not doing any traveling — with an Ace travel mug.

For some reason, whatever else he forgets, even temporarily, I want him to remember Ace eternally.

I realize it is petty jealousy, and that it’s likely limited to me. Ace, in all probability, wouldn’t mind a bit that my father has another dog to entertain, comfort, calm, console and warm him.

And in truth, I am far more grateful than I am jealous when it comes to Henry, who I got to meet when I visited, and who is pretty special and wonderful himself.

On my dad’s 89th birthday, Henry was there; Ace and I weren’t.

I can understand my dad being smitten with Henry, and I’m glad he is. Dogs and love, if you ask me, are among the top five reasons to go on living. (The other three are books, music and pizza.)

But I’ll admit to a little “that should be Ace” twinge every time I get a report of Dad and Henry bonding, or get sent a photo of the two of them cuddling in bed.

It makes me want to get Ace — not to mention myself — out there for another visit.

Once he was confronted — when he was noticed, after the second attempted theft, with a bulge under his Maui t-shirt — my father confessed and revealed his ill-gotten bootie.

No charges were filed.

And the framed photo of Henry, according to Henry’s owner, will be placed in a new location:

My father’s room.

Posted from: http://www.ohmidog.com/2013/04/22/the-dog-that-stole-my-fathers-heart/

Jake the Diamond Dog is as entertaining as the baseball game

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By The Associated Press
on April 21, 2013 at 10:50 AM, updated April 21, 2013 at 11:01 AM

View full sizeJake the Diamond Dog works the minor league game in Columbus, Ohio, retrieving bats, delivering the game ball to the pitcher and taking bottled water to umpires.The Associated Press 

While much of the crowd watched the Columbus, Ohio,  Clippers' Cedric Hunter make a dash to first base in the bottom of the third inning, one Huntington Park visitor kept his gaze fixed on home plate.

On command, he shuffled out to home, picked up Hunter's bat and turned back toward the dugout.
In such ways, the golden retriever — aka Jake the Diamond Dog — dutifully took care of business on a Sunday during the first of his four visits to Columbus this season.
The home team lost 12-7 to the Indianapolis Indians, but Jake became the star of the afternoon — delivering the game ball to the pitcher, retrieving bats, taking bottled water to the umpires between innings.
"Nothing away from the other batboys, but we love Jake," Hilliard resident Melinda Brant, 35, said as she stood in line for his "autograph" with her young son. "When Jake goes out and gets the bats, that's our favorite."
The dog is hardly a minor league rookie: "Jake" has visited ballparks nationwide with his owner — Jeff Marchal, 55, of Lima, Ohio — for 2 ½ decades and Clippers games for the past seven years.
The appearance grew out of a trick that Marchal taught his first golden retriever, Jericho: Twenty-five years ago, as a resident of Pompano Beach, Fla., Marchal would put money in a basket for the dog, who would trot to a nearby store to fetch a six-pack of beer.
After gaining attention for that stunt and others, the duo made Fort Myers, Fla., its home — where Jericho was named a full-time mascot for the Fort Myers Miracle, a Minnesota Twins affiliate.
The first official "Jake the Diamond Dog" — the second Marchal-trained golden retriever (real name: Jake) — was prepped to take over for Jericho before Jericho died in 1994.
A year later, the dog and owner moved to Lima, Marchal's hometown, to extend their entertainment to other teams. Jake represents one of several acts that the Clippers will showcase during the season.
Marchal has since had two other golden retrievers: Homer, who died in 2009; and his latest pup, Deuce (with "Jake the Diamond Dog" as their pseudonyms).
"I'm with them 24/7," he said. "Their vocabulary is very wide, so, in order for them to understand you, you have to be with them. You have to teach them right and wrong."
Marchal is committed to quality: He once ripped up a check after a game, he said, because he thought Jake hadn't performed well.
"I didn't feel my dog worked up to par...?. The majority of the time, he does great."
The biggest challenge seemed to involve the bottled water.
Jake, making his rounds from the umpire at home plate to those in the outfield, sometimes sat down and let the men in blue approach him to get a bottle out of the basket. Another time, he took the basket away before an umpire had finished his drink.
"Sometimes it's funnier when he doesn't do something he's supposed to," said Mark Galuska, director of marketing for the Clippers. "That's when the fans seem to get a bigger kick out of it."
Jake did a little better in the first inning when he delivered flowers to his "ballpark sweetheart" of the game: Patti Wogan, 38, of Columbus.
When not performing his duties, catching Frisbees or propping his front paws on the baseline walls to meet the crowd, Jake was perched in his blow-up doghouse next to the Clippers dugout.
He will attend about 30 games in all this year, including a few at Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians — his first and only major league gigs.
The goal of breaking into the majors, Marchal said, sealed Jake's career.
"It'd be nice if baseball season was year-round," he said. "I'll do this until no one books me ever again."