A Dog Named Sam

If you share your home with a dog, you will know just how much your life is enriched - with affection, humor, empathy, playfulness, joy. It's uncanny, magic even, how the dog settles into the comfortable spot in your heart. I went many years of my adult life without a dog. I didn't know it then, but I was a poorer and sadder person. This isn't my dog; Frankie is my dog.

There were three people who convinced me to get a dog. They know who they are. But there was also a dog that convinced me - this dog, our neighbors' ever-present friendly happy lively dog, Sam.

I'm happy with the portrait. I worked from a black and white photo, and I spent more hours drawing than painting, to get the likeness. I always thought it would be difficult working from black and white, but I actually think my colors are better than they would be if I had a colored picture as a guide. I had to think about the colors more and try them out. It amuses me how the unfinished bottom of the picture makes me think of the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington