13.5" X 20.5", oil on masonite
You'd think that with a black dog, or with a white dog, or with a black-and-white dog you would just mix up a bunch of black and squeeze out a bunch of white and get to it- And I suppose that would be mostly true if your subject was lit with pure white light against a black background, or a white background, but as soon as the subject, (in this case, big handsome Otis the Great Dane) starts hanging out on his big ol' bed with a big ol' hardwood floor underneath, warmed by a sort of light umber wall and lit by light bouncing off of a windowsill which has already gone through the trees, you start talking about more than straight black and white, and you get all these nice blues and greens and yellows and pinks everywhere- And compositionally, sticking a big ol' Great Dane foot right out in the very foregroundmost part of the painting underscores the size of this guy and made me very happy. It was therapeutic for me to spend several hours over a few days looking into the handsome face of this handsome dog and trying to get the painting just right.
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