tashina knight

I’d like to introduce you to a good friend of mine. His name is Loki and he’s a papillon. Papillons are the little dogs you might have seen in the circus riding on the backs of horses and doing tricks. They are one of the smartest breeds out there. I got him when he was 4 months old and now he’s almost 2.

He is definitely a companion dog as he follows me wherever I go. He hates car rides and likes baths as long as they are gentle. I bought him lots of toys when I first got him, but his favorites are an old black sock with a knot in the middle and a small plush sqeaky toy that was $5. A frugal dog.  He’s close to a being a vegetarian by choice - he won’t eat most meats - not beef, not turkey, maybe a little chicken, but he loves veggies and his favorite foods are green beans and rice with yeast.

As he got older he started to get very beautiful - at least in my eyes. He has a gentle sweet side and a spunky fiesty side. He is the son of two champions but couldn’t be shown because he has a little tiny bit of white in one ear that "ruins" his butterfly appearance. Lucky me that he had that bit of white, because otherwise he’d be a show dog instead of my lap puppy!

He was also the runt of the litter and is still only 6 lbs. He knows a ton of words and tricks, and I think he’s learning to spell! When I talk on the phone to my husband, and I say words he knows like walk, bone, etc, he pricks his ears up. So as not to get Loki’s expectations up, I try to spell the words he knows and use a very neutral voice, but he’s started to prick up his ears when I spell B-O-N-E!

I’ve been mostly alone in a hotel room for 2 1/2 months and I don’t know what I would have done without him.

The Illustration Friday topic, Fresh, immediately brought to mind this painting that I finished last week. I’m having a fresh start in a new city and I’m trying out some fresh-to-me ideas. This painting is 18"x24" - it’s an acrylic painting on a watercolor block (hot press) and then all the little swirls and flowers are painted on a secondary sheet and glued on afterwards. I’ve always admired that collage artists and quilters who fuse their work get to cut out all the pieces they want to use and then once everything is just the way they want it they then glue it down. Painters who don’t like something have to go to more trouble to correct an imperfect composition. So I thought I’d try a combination and I like the technique. I’d also like to try some paper mosaics.

As usual, click for a larger image.