Ironically enough, the winner of my friend Sharon Santoni’s “August Give-away” (on her blog “My French Country Home; Sharon is an Englishwoman living in Normandy) is a lady who, it turns out, lives in Charlotte… only two hours from my front door in North Carolina. She’s got two brothers who live in Durham and Raleigh. So much for attracting ultra-exotic clientele by having yourself featured in (“on”?) Francophile blogs on the internet.
In any case, the lady owns one very treasured pug (I’ve never known anyone who owned one of these strange little dogs that wasn’t utterly devoted to it), is very funny (we’ve talked twice on the telephone), but also remarkably straightforward. As she wrote to me “I’ve got lots of pictures, but he usually ends up looking like just a black blob with a tongue.” She was right.
Fortunately, the intrinsically comic (at least in my opinion, but I think this of all pugs) “Toby” is getting older and gray around the muzzle. So, he’s finally got some definition.
I love these dogs; my Charlottesville friend, Elke, has always (at least since I’ve known her) had one or two. I’ve yet to meet a pug that doesn’t, quite obviously, think he/she is BEAUTIFUL. I’ve never known a pug to growl or snap (except at other pugs) or do anything but be perfectly happy.
In any case…here’s Mister Toby….
oil pencil, watercolor, and pastels
12″x10″
2013