After living in our loft for less than a week, we opened the front door of our studio and gallery to the public.
This exhibition of the “Stray Dogs of Nicaragua” marks an important chapter in our lives. We lived and worked in Nicaragua for six years. The paintings of the dogs were actually done in Chicago before we moved full time to Nicaragua. And here they are back in Chicago on show again!
In Granada, Nicaragua, the paintings were and still are (in some cases) hanging in a hotel, a yoga studio, a few restaurants and an art gallery. In the context of Nicaragua, the paintings of course had a particular strong resonance. The dogs on the walls were the dogs in the streets and vice versa.
People often told me they recognized a certain stray dog in a certain painting. This was a large body of work of some 40 paintings. I did it over a period of 4 years, building up an asset which I hoped would finance our travels and help the stray dogs in Nicaragua. It did both!
To enjoy (almost) all the dogs paintings in the context of the full body of work , I have self published a book on Amazon: “Stray Dogs of Nicaragua” Paintings by Peta Kaplan:
“Teddy” ~A small dog with a huge heart. I did numerous drawings and paintings of Teddy over the years. This was one of my favorite paintings of him and is the cover of the book.
The evening at Studio 352, was low key and effortless and surprisingly productive. It was fun for us to pop our heads into other studios to get an idea of what our fellow artists are working on. The building houses an interesting collection of personalities and creative characters.
We had a steady slow flow of visitors. A tempo which allowed us to take the time to talk to people who by participating in this event, are part of the local art scene.
There now remain 8 dog paintings which are in Chicago and 5 dog paintings in Granada.
These are for sale. Anyone interested in purchasing a 5ft x 5ft dog paintings,(in oil, on canvas), email: petakaplan@hotmail.com.
A portion of the proceeds of any paintings which sell, will go towards helping a very special friend in Sri Lanka:
In love with NAMAL ~ Sri Lanka
The dog paintings will remain up for viewing until the next exhibition which will open on June 5th and will feature other animals I have painted, in a big way. I am excited to be putting a show together with a good friend and an awesome animal photographer ~ a fellow animal advocate. Stay tuned!
Beautiful paintings. I didn’t know you were also an artist! Is there anything you don’t do? 🙂
Alison
Thank you Alison for the compliment!
Glad you enjoyed my work. sales of paintings have helped the stray dogs in Nicaragua get fed and have helped fuel our nomadic lifestyle… Am currently working on a new body of work to help a baby elephant in Sri Lanka get a leg, and to start building up funds for the next round of our Green Global Trek travels. Best to both of you!
Such great work and so cool!!
can’t wait to come to the next art opening… pls send out reminders!
Look forward to seeing you!
(Dena M)
Thanks so much…. I will definitely send out reminders and post it on my Facebook page as well. Look forward to seeing you too, on JUNE 5th 🙂
Again, thanks for pointing me to these posts which highlight your art. Interesting that you told the story of Nicaragua through their stray dogs – their plaintive faces and lean bodies say everything.
Do you still paint? I would think you couldn’t not paint (yeah, parse that crazy sentence) If so, what are you painting now?
And of course – how is the baby elephant doing now?