December 3, 2025
Every painting has a story. So does this one. Every now and then a friend shows me a picture and it awakens an urge to paint the subject in that picture. That happened when a fellow St. Thomas artist was proudly showing me an image of his new doggy friend Sarge. I was instantly charmed and understood why he adopted Sarge.
I asked if I could paint the dog and when he said yes I boldly invited myself to his house, because I rarely paint subjects I have not personally met. Especially with animals, one can get a completely wrong impression of shape and character if all you’d have to go by was one image. And lo and behold, was I glad I had stuck to my normal routine, because Sarge was not at all what I expected!
I had envisioned a cute little dog, maybe not even knee-high. The kind of dog you pick up and take with you on the train or the plane. Upon entering the house, my host warned me that Sarge might come at me in full force and possibly even knock me off my feet. I raised my eyebrows and secretly thought to myself: that’s a bit rich for a small dog?, and said that I was quite okay with dogs, as long as they were not aggressive.
BIG personality enters the room!
And then this lightning fast blur of black and white fur entered from the back yard, mouth open, red tongue flopping up and down, all muscles and enthusiastic panting, almost knocking me off my feet with a cartoon-like sitting stop. Meet Sarge! He instantly charmed himself into my heart. This was not just a big dog with enough energy to supply a whole village of dogs, it was also a dog with the sweetest character I have seen in a long time. Sarge totally smashed it and as I was making some pictures of my own, he was pawing me for attention and just gobbled up whatever cuddles were available. And there were a lot!
His owner told me that when he bought his chaise longue, he had solemnly sworn that no dog would ever be allowed to sit on it. Right. Wrong. Sarge has claimed it as one of his favourite spots in the house. In my painting I took some creative liberties with this couch, but other than that, this painting captures the spirit of this wonderful dog. Thanks, Dennis, for letting me paint him!