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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Etsy Dog Art

Etsy, as you may or may not know, is an online marketplace for individual purveyors of handmade arts and crafts and vintage goods and the place to buy photographs taken by yours truly. That's the official story, at any rate. I was making a flat-faced dogs treasury the other day when it dawned on me that people might not realize that Etsy functions as a grand repository for all kinds of creative dog art.

Flat-Faced and Fabulous: Pugs, Frenchies, and Bulldogs

That's right, dog art. Whatever your preference may be when it comes to canine breed or artistic style, Etsy has something for you. (Seriously, if you type in the keywords "dog art," you get 50,828 results!) And if you like your dog art to be colorful and fun and maybe just a little bit cheeky, you absolutely cannot go wrong exploring the work of the many talented artists who advertise their animal wares on Etsy.

I've made a few Etsy treasuries over the last couple of years that involved dogs, which is why I happened to be checking out the dog art market in the first place. Both of these treasuries are more than a year old and so only skeletons of their former selves, but if you want, you can still see what remains of Chickens and Chihuahuas on Chairs and The Long and Short of It, my homage to dachshunds, basset hounds, and corgis. You'll see multiple images by dogpopart, whose dog paintings are full of electric, unconventional color...

Woman's Best Friend
 dogpopart - Angela Bond

...lulunjay, whose work features animals doing everyday human activities...

Welsh Springer Spaniel at the Coffee Shop
lulunjay - Jay Schmetz

...HeatherGallerArt, whose portraits are brightly colored and highly patterned...


pop art dog - Pit Bull
HeatherGallerArt - Heather Galler

...and the wonderfully whimsical paintings of rubenacker.


Boxer
rubenacker - Brian Rubenacker

Other dog artists that have caught my eye include the charming digital illustrations by popdoggie...

Cardigan Corgi
popdoggie- Kari

...the clean, modern silhouettes by ModDogShop...

Min Pin Mod Dog
ModDogShop

...and the amazing paper collages by CanineCutUps.

Australian Shepherd
CanineCutUps - Patricia Peters

And, for the record, if you love French bulldogs, there is simply oodles of fun Frenchie art to be had!

But the main artist I want to highlight today is Christopher Rozzi, whose shop tinyconfessions is full of little paintings of some of man's best friends...and what they're REALLY thinking! (Your corgi, it turns out, is fiercely loyal; your bichon, on the other hand, kinda maybe doesn't totally respect you.) Here are some of my favorites:

Pug
tinyconfessions - Christopher Rozzi

Brussels Griffon
tinyconfessions - Christopher Rozzi

Chihuahua
tinyconfessions - Christopher Rozzi

Labrador Retriever
tinyconfessions - Christopher Rozzi

Shih Tzu
tinyconfessions - Christopher Rozzi

The artists mentioned in this post represent just a tiny fraction of the masses of great painters and illustrators and graphic designers whose work can be found on Etsy. Furthermore, if you don't see anything that looks like your mutt among the saucy pugs, soulful retrievers, and sleek dobermans, many artists will gladly make a custom portrait of your dog in the style they use in the rest of their work. So if you're thinking it's time for your walls to reflect how much you love dogs in general or your dog in particular, make sure you take some time to see what Etsy has to offer!



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