So, why 82 Blue Dogs and a Cat?

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In 2023, the theme of The Royal Academy's Summer Show was connections. Whilst I was sat with Bobby, my beloved Patterdale Terrier, I thought I'd try to paint the pair of us as we share the unconditional dog-human connection that all dog owners know too well.

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My preferred medium for art has always been ink so why I thought I would do a painting of my dog is anybody's guess. 

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Having never painted a dog before, I was both surprised and impressed at how things started to come to together. Actually,  I was as happy as a pig in shit. It really started to look like Bob!

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Then came my part in the bargain. It was time to start painting my face.

With two long weeks remaining, deadline in sight, I had seemingly painted myself with big lip-fillers (I wouldn't have them, they won't suit me) and my face started to take on a blue-ish hue, apparently straight out of Avatar. My eyes started to move around my face and definitely not to where they should be and quite frankly I couldn't stand to look at myself anymore... Seriously, I peaked to soon painting Bobby!

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As the deadline arrived - I ended up sending a different picture to the Royal Academy whilst absolutely livid with myself. I was of course still an absolute joy to be around 🤣

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Needless to say I was rejected but I didn't care (I had already beaten myself up and thrown myself around the room at the deadline stage.) It wasn't what I wanted to send and I certainly wasn't going to get in with the painting.

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From this though, I had found that I enjoyed painting dogs. Not so much faces. So I decided to paint my friend's dog. She probably wouldn't have let me paint her face anyway! And that is how the project started.

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It's always funny how one thing leads to another thing that you didn't intend on initially. This is my spin on David Hockney's 82 Portraits and 1 Still-Life and I am thoroughly enjoying it.