When I lived in Southern California, some of my fondest memories were of time spent with Margaret at the dog shows. Usually (not always) she showed male Irish setters. Usually (not always) I showed female Irish setters. There were times we showed each others dogs - the stories I could tell there (but I won't).
Margaret stepped outside of our box when she acquired an English Pointer named Xander. As an artist, Pointers stop me in my tracks. Their sleek lines and graceful movement are breathtaking. I absolutely love pointers. Xander was the kindest dog. I don't ever remember him having a mean bone in his body (other than the time he chomped on a ground squirrel at a hunt test - but he was a sporting dog). Margaret knew I was waiting for the day she would say, "It is time to paint Xander." That day came and I couldn't have been more excited.
We sat down and talked about the painting and looked at his reference photos. A little back story here - Xander and our boy, Drew (Bling's sire) were hunt test buddies (both boys are gone now). The two boys were well acquainted from hanging out at the dog shows together. To our delight at a local hunt test, Xander and Drew were in a brace together. Margaret was handling Xander, Rich was handling Drew, and I was manning the camera with a telephoto lens. When the handlers were instructed to release their dogs, Xander and Drew looked at each other and took off running. I could see it in the lens. If they could have spoken, they would have told each other "GAME ON". Those two boys spent more time out running each other on the way to the bird field than getting to the bird field. At one point, Drew had he lead. He was so excited. Xander stopped to relieve himself - he knew there was no contest when it came to speed. Drew was lengths ahead of Xander - at least for a little bit. Xander put it into full gear and literally left Drew in his dust. Margaret, Rich and I laugh about it to this day. When discussing Xander's painting compositionally, Margaret thought it would be fun to put Xander and Drew as cameos hunting in the painting and use the actual photos from the hunt test as the background. What a fun idea. When you look at the painting you'll see the two boys thinking about getting to business. At the end of that day - they both did get legs towards their Junior Hunter titles - which both dogs did obtain by the end of the weekend.
Thank you Margaret for having me paint your boy. He is always in my heart.
