Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Our Favorite Things: Keeping Dog Memories

When I was going through my files at school the other day, I found this photo of Miss M taken just after I'd adopted her. I purposely move it to different files just so I can have the chance encounter of finding it again.
Looking back at this photo, seeing how young (and skinny!) she looks, makes me remember how fleeting our time is with our pooches.
 While we do take an extraordinary amount of photos, I'm always looking for something genuinely keepsake-worthy. We were lucky enough to take part in a photography fundraiser a few years ago to capture these photos:
I always thought it would be quite 'Victorian' to capture the pooches via painting, especially seeing how Kitty+Coco's mom captures Coco's little wrinkly face in acrylic, along with other pooches in her Etsy shop. How cute would this be as a surprise gift?
 Has anyone else been 'thinking Victorian' and either considered or had your pooches painted?

27 comments:

Christine said...

I love dog art. That painting is beautiful. I was thinking of "commissioning" an etsy seller to do paintings of my dogs but instead I ended up using picnik.com to posterize some favorite photos of our pooches. I am planning to have the photos printed on canvas - can't wait to see the result!

Unknown said...

Love those professional photos! I would love to have professional photos taken like that but there aren't too many opportunities around here. I also would like a canvas of some sort.

Thanks for reminding me to do a better job of taking and framing photos of the duo.

The Heartbeats said...

Love, love, love the photos! I would love to have my pooches painted. My aunt is a full-time artist and she gave me a collage of Calhoun. She puts tiny pieces of homemade paper and origami paper together to re-create a photo. The collage is my pride and joy and he's wearing his therapy dog vest.

Mamma Heartbat

Sightless said...

I've been planning, for a very long time, to get Charlie's (and now maybe Emma's too) pawprint tattooed on me. Talk about a keepsake, right? But I have it all planned out, I bought the supplies, I'm just too chicken to do it. I have the non toxic stamp paint, the big roll of white paper, and the dog. Now I just need to combine and bring to a tattoo parlor! Though maybe a drawing isn't such a bad idea . . .

Aleksandra said...

i lovelovelove the photo of the two of them together on white! and, miss m was such an adorable puppy!!

Unknown said...

I had my Doberman's John Henry and Patience done in a charcoal painting. John Henry and Patience have been gone for many years now but those paintings are one of my most prized possessions. By the way those photos today are the adorable!!!!

In Black and White said...

I've had Bilbo less than a year and a half but he's well on his way to becoming one of the most documented pooches around. I put up some of the pics on my blog!
@Ettel, Charlie Poodle and Emma Pitty - check out the awesome tatto that Fifty's mom got!

http://fitythepitty.blogspot.com/2011/02/check-socket-round-two.html

Luci's Mama said...

I've always wanted to get a photo of Luci on canvas or commission an artist to paint a portrait of her...it's on my list of things to do this year!

Beth said...

Love the photos! They look great!

www.truthaboutpitbulls.blogspot.com

Kari in Alaska said...

you can surprise us with a gift of a painting anytime ;)

Kari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com

Mack and Mia said...

Your professional photos are fabulous. I think a painted portrait of the pooches would be awesome and very artsy!

and I LOOOOOOOVE Etsy.com

Nice to see woo all again.

Wags and Woofs,
Mack and Mia

Barbara said...

Not only have I had my pooches painted, I had one dog made into a miniature sculpture too!

jen said...

I have been thinking of having their pictures painted for quite awhile now, I just have to find the right artist!
Those photos you have of them are precious!

brooke said...

i LOVE the professional photos of Mr B and Miss M! Beautiful!

Road Dog Tales said...

Wow! Awesome photos of Mr. B and Ms. M! And Kitty + Coco's mom is quite a talented artist. We love her sock monkey painting, too :)

Thanks for sharing this very cool art!

The Road Dogs

The Whitfields said...

Those are adorable. I love the one of Mr. B! He's super photogenic!!

Anonymous said...

That photo of Ms. M when she was young is so cute, and love the professional photos of both! That's a great painting of the pug from Kitty+Coco!! A very sweet friend gave me a gift certificate to Modern Bird Studios right after we lost our dog, so I'm going to have a "modern" portrait done of her :)
http://www.modernbirdstudios.com/portfolio/

Lucy-Fur, as typed by Dr. Liz said...

I am much more of a fan of photography than paintings just because I think it's hard to capture the multi-faceted nature of our dogs (all of the dogs we've ever had). That said, every year I do a calendar with the 48 most memorable pictures of the year (which is TOUGH to do), and send a copy to all our relatives (and we keep one). We have a wall of 7 calendars (not counting the current year) and I rotate the picture showing on each one every once in a while just to see pictures of our kids, particularly kids who are no longer with us. My mother-in-law liked them so much that she's asked for past years' calendars so she could have a full set!

-Dr. Liz (the girls are napping after another tough day in front of the camera...)

Mary said...

Sorry I haven't commented in so long! Life has been a little nuts lately!

I would love to do something extra-special to commemorate our boys. Like you, I have a gazillion photos, but even choosing a particularly beautiful one and framing it doesn't seem like enough. I like the idea of the painting. A cheaper route would be to take a photo and make a canvas from it. I think any photo agency like flickr or snapfish have services like that.

Anonymous said...

I have considered having dogs painted for friends and family members as a gift. My mother-in-law's dog passed away last year after twenty years. I can't think of something she would treasure more. But there are so many talented artists, it is hard to pick one. Perhaps I will have it done in time for Christmas this year.

The professional photos of your dogs are quite beautiful. The photographer really captured their distinct personalities.

Felicity said...

I had a 'pawtrait' of Anouk and Ziggy done by the wonderful Kim Niles at http://www.kiniart.com/
It's more a cariactature than a faithful true to life representation, but she captured their character really well

Two French Bulldogs said...

Great pictures!! Brutus and Carmen's mom had caricatures done. Purrty cool
Benny & Lily

houndstooth said...

We have had four of our dogs painted so far, two of them were requests we made, one was for winning a contest and one was painted by an artist who saw one of our photos and asked us if she could paint her, then she offered us first dibs on buying it. So far, Treat, Blueberry and Morgan have painted portraits and Bunny has been done as a watercolor print. I am really hoping I can get Bunny's portrait done by the same artist who painted Treat and Blueberry, Billie Mann.

Kitty+Coco said...

We totally need pictures of Kitty and Coco like Mr. B and Ms. M's. Thanks for the props! Anyone interested in a portrait let me know.

Kitty and Coco

ForPetsSake said...

I am a dog art nut! We have 6 dog art pieces on our walls and 1 wolf piece. Somehow, I managed to sneak all this onto the walls until one day Matt turned around and said, "So we're decorating with dogs, huh?"
hehe...

ForPetsSake said...

And those pics of your kiddos are gorgeous!

Unknown said...

That painting is incredible, I think the wrinkles really enhance the cuteness! You can never have enough dog memorabilia.

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