Thursday, February 25, 2016

Callie's baby girl, Skipper.

Several years ago I painted two lovely young but mature Irish Setters. I'd photographed them in Wisconsin while traveling. When I gave the painting to the dog's owner, she was as excited as I was with the painting. Some years have passed and that lovely young female has grown into an amazing adult and had her first litter of pups. To my delight the owner had me paint the tiny pup she kept from this litter. I'm not sure I can express the joy in my heart to have painted the pup after painting its dam. I've asked the human mom to share the story of this special pup. Here is what she shared:

As you may know, this was my first litter ever, born during an ice storm when we were without power. Skipper was the name of my childhood dog, a boxer my parents got as a puppy about the same time I was born, so we grew up together. I had never even thought about naming another dog after him. Because this litter was immediately dubbed the Squeakers , my daughters were amusing themselves during the very long day (Callie took a 5 hour whelping pause after the third puppy!) giving all the puppies baby names that started with "Squ" but when purple girl girl was born, for some reason, Jen looked at her and said Skipper. Even though she was the seventh puppy to be born out of 10, I just had the most visceral reaction to her. I swear she crawled over to me as soon as we put her down after drying her off. For 8 weeks I had to force myself not to bond with her in case she wasn't the pick bitch!

Anyway, my other daughter Jessica took this picture of her the first day her eyes were fully opened. She was just starting to figure out how to focus them. She was the first to escape the whelping box and still believes the top of the pool table in the family room is her private perch. Her registered name is Carillon By Candlelight because we had no power the day she was born.

I love the painting! Not only because it is my sweet Skipper but also because it is a wonderful way to remember the joy of my first litter. Thank you so much.

Thank you Carolyn for having me paint your dogs.
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