Remarkable Dogs

"Gunboat" Judy, the first dog to be listed as an official Japanese prisoner of war. She survived two shipwrecks and repeatedly saved her crew with her sharp senses and bravery.

A couple of years ago, I had an idea. I told everyone about it. I researched. I did a series of practice paintings to explore my style.

And then I got busy and it fell by the wayside.

And then I finally started it!

And made prints!!!

And immediately forgot to tell people I was actually doing it. Oops!

Such is the life of a deeply disorganised creative.

So, please let me tell you about this project that's been brewing in my brain for years.

Initially I was selling little generic portraits of dogs at markets, but I quickly discovered that I simply never have the right breed. Or if I did have the right breed, it didn't quite look like their dog. Some artists are great at making all of the breed-specific art, but I couldn't find a way that would be fun and unique to my style.

Then I read an interesting story about a dog that had been awarded the PDSA medal. So I started reading more stories. I remembered Hachi the Shibuya Station dog. And Greyfriars Bobby, who stood vigil over his owner's grave. And Bobbie the Wonder Dog, who travelled thousands of miles on foot to get home, inspiring several films. I decided then I was going to paint a series of dog portraits to honour historical dogs that had gone above and beyond for their human charges.

So I started with Hachi, you might know him from that Richard Gere film. He was an Akita Inu who famously went to the train station every day for his owner to come home, nine years after his owner tragically passed away at work. The attention he gained for his incredible dedication and fidelity went a big way to save the nearly-extinct Akita breed in Japan. Next I painted "Gunboat" Judy, a very brave ship's dog who survived two POW camps and two shipwrecks during WWII. Third, I painted Ciapek, who was a little firecracker of terrier from my home turf of Lincolnshire. He went on several bombing raids with a Polish squadron and ultimately survived a plane crash. How? Because terriers are built different. Genuinely, it's a mystery and nobody knows.

I'm hoping you'll find a story that speaks to you, or maybe you love akitas and Hachi was a great ambassador for the breed, or Ciapek perfectly encapsulates that feisty "terrierist" spirit that all terrier owners are familiar with.

For now, I'm leaving out any dogs that died in the line of duty or are currently serving. I read too many stories about dogs dying to save children and as wonderful as those dogs were, it was soul-destroying to read through them all. I'm focusing on happier stories where the dogs went home after the war, survived their adventures, had happy endings, etc. The only current exception might be Boye who was an unofficial royalist mascot during the English Civil War. He did sadly die in the end but not before rumours circulated that he was some kind of indestructible demon-witch who caught bullets between his teeth. He was a fluffy white poodle. So I think he gets cool points even if he did have a sad ending.

Boye the Battle Pudel

All that being said: You can now buy printed cards of the first three dogs in the series from my online shop. Their stories are in the listing. OR: you can come and see me at a show and I will talk your ear off about how cool they were. There will also be larger prints available. The long term plan is to compile them all in a small book and maybe, just maybe book a gallery showing. I hope you'll enjoy this journey with me.

Ciapek Card

Hachi Card