Please...

My daughter's family has two dogs. They have had "Uncle Wally," a cockapoo, for several years. He's a cute little ball of hair. About five years ago they decided that Wally needed a friend - another dog, but with a big bark.

Before Wally, they had had a golden retriever - a wonderful family dog, good with children and loved by all. So, a golden puppy was introduced to the household. "Professor Gilbert" was an adorable ball of fur, about the same size as Wally...but not for long. Gilbert grew and grew...and maintained his puppy-ness!

This is a busy household - four girls with sports schedules, sleepovers, etc.  - and not a lot of time to train a puppy. Before we knew it, Gilbert was an enormous animal who was always retrieving and destroying things things like shoes, pieces of clothing, lacrosse balls - you name it.  Whenever I visited and showed him the slightest attention, he jumped all over me and then 'retrieved' my wrist - which ended up in his mouth!

Eventually a 'dog whisperer' was called in...

A month or so ago, my son-in-law posted a picture of Gilbert with the caption "I think Gilbert wants something."  Too cute, I had to paint it!

I love painting animals in pastel. So I began with the pencil sketch and few blocks of color.

The original photo was of Gilbert on the hardwood kitchen floor. When I began to add the floor color, the whole painting was the same color so I changed the floor to imaginary rug/grass...or something blue-green that would contrast with the golden dog.

Here's the finished painting. I love the way his jowl is sort of hung up on his paw.

I am thinking of calling this "Please..."                     BTW, the dog whisperer worked...