Of Triangles and Terriers
Posted: May 16, 2009 Filed under: Art and Photography, DRambles on Black Mountain | Tags: Debby Rothman Leave a commentI’ve always loved terriers. My first Champion was a Smooth Fox Terrier, Ch. Foxden Lyric.
Once Upon A Dog is a feature inside the back cover of AKC Family Dog. From the March/April 2008 issue…
Francis Redmon’s “Totteridge” Smooth Fox Terriers were a famous British line of the late 19th century. Redmond was a master dog man who did much to standardize his breed, and the Totteridge kennel was pivotal in the creation of the modern Smooth Fox Terrier.
It was the custom to immortalize dogs of such renown on canvas. The plum job of preserving Redmon’s famed fox terriers for posterity fell to Arthur Wardle (1864 – 1949), a self-taught animal portraitist who learned his trade during long hours of sketching at the London Zoo.
Wardle’s The Totteride XI is a masterly example of perspective painting. The artist creates the illusion of depth by leaving plenty of bright ground beneath the dogs and darkening his palette as he moves from foreground to background, with the sponge and basin in the near foreground completing the three-dimensional effect.
Warle’s great challenge was how to group the 11 terriers, an unusually large number of subjects for a commission of this kind. He arranged the dogs on two levels, six on the ground and five in the hay crib above. One dog stands a head taller than the others, serving as the apex of the triangular grouping.
Within the larger triangle, the dogs’ heads are arranged to form smaller triangular patterns. These are set off by the rectangular planes of the background and floor, with one perfectly placed vertical beam breaking up the composition’s horizontal drift. Wardle, like many a great artist before and since, understood the visual power contained in the unreleased tension of triangles, especially when framed by static rectangles.
In The Totteridge XI, Wardle left us a historical record of one of dogdom’s most important lines. The canvas also serves as a visual encyclopedia of art technique, from which any young painter can learn.
Not bad for a guy who never took a lesson.
Kelly shared…
Posted: March 11, 2009 Filed under: Art and Photography Leave a commentKelly sent…
Don’t know if you have seen thisyet. If not I want you to click on the horses eye. Very intesting!!!!! I thought it was pretty cool idea so sent it to you.
Tibetan dog art
Posted: February 20, 2009 Filed under: Apso Aficionados, Art and Photography Leave a commentVickie sent the following:
The info on the artist of this piece is quite interesting! Clicking on her name – Constance Coleman – will bring it up. Then click on Original Works on the second page … more dogs of Tibet!
: A tribute
Posted: July 8, 2008 Filed under: Art and Photography, Gompa Lhasa Apsos 1 CommentThis post will circle back, paying tribute not only to a special little dog, but to the many people out there in the ephemeral world of cyberspace, ending with the last stanza of a poem sent titled Touch Of The ‘Net, author unknown.
Through fibers, disks, and such.
May cold computer magic turn
To caring, human touch.
Panchen, One Champ of a Dog, has passed through his final door on this planet.
His life’s story, his journey including one last compassionate journey with Susan touched so many hearts.
Katy was moved to sketch – then paint – his aged body, full of nooks and crannies. Words, posted on her blog, pay tribute to this little dog’s spirit. Fare thee well, Travelin’ Man! Godspeed!
Susan shared a series of photos, taken yesterday morning on her porch, which she titled Last Morning on Langner.
The pillow Kathy embellished with an embroidered heart and a little dog bone rests behind him.
This past week Time in a Bottle kept going through Kathy’s mind…
Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce If I could save Time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
‘Til Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you
CHORUS:
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time withIf I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you
And from Vickie..
The message came today,
Propelled through wires at speed of light,
From near or far away.
A staunch and mighty guard,
A loving comfort, Hero spawn,
Fair grist for any bard.
And friends to mourn his death,
She left behind a wash of tears,
As she breathed her last breath.
And contact now is found
With folks that we may never see
But feel with touch profound.
Shape words of joy or pain,
We teach and learn and share our lives
And blessings deep we gain.
And tears flow down my face,
I share a loss and try to find
Pure words of peace and grace.
A precious life has passed.
We take them in, they bless our lives,
Then leave us much too fast.
Our short-lived friends to keep,
In stories, images and thoughts,
To calm us as we weep.
Through fibers, disks, and such.
May cold computer magic turn
To caring, human touch.
:Raji…and more
Posted: April 24, 2008 Filed under: Art and Photography, FFT Lhasa Apsos 4 CommentsThe painting of Raji Susan mentioned in her comment yesterday…
Katy sent this to me, along with the following note:
A photo of Lily Joy taken a day after her birth…
Lily Joy’s birth was bittersweet, as her sibling didn’t live. Life, glorious, often big, is fragile…particularly the process of entering this world, whether you be goat or dog. Katy’s words:
Kunza at FleetFire Timbers 