Christmas at the Pub with Dad, oil painting by Laura Harrison McBride

The love of pets is important to mankind, I think. This man, at a pub in Gwithian, Cornwall, a couple of years ago, clearly thinks so. When he visits the pub, he arrives at off hours so there won't be a crowd and he can let his two Jack Russells sit at the bar with him, on their own paw-print stool covers to protect the pub's upholstery. It was kind of him to let me take their picture so I could paint it, even though I will never sell it. I would sell giclee prints. Maybe I should sell them in support of a local animal rescue organization; yes, I think I will. But the original stays with me; as the former director of the Boca Raton (US) Humane Society, I understand that to many people, pets are their best friend and sometimes even their family.

Yesterday, on an international FB art page, a man with considerable technical talent posted two of his pet portraits. They were very good. But then he insulted every pet-lover on the planet by saying he didn't do them anymore because it was stupid to spend time/money on pets in preference to portraits of people, family and friends and, one must assume, "important people."

Important people. What does that even mean?

Have you ever seen a homeless person and his or her pet on the street? I have. There were three homeless men in Limoux, France, the year we lived in nearby Quillan, who were accompanied by their dogs. The shop owners allowed them the use of their entries to shelter in and, I hope, also gave them food. They were not run off, as they would be in the UK.

There was one homeless man who sat on the curb in outside our local Carrefour supermarket, seeking donations. Needless to say, he always got one from me, and the dog got a box of kibble as well. AND I saw several other shoppers do the same. 

That so-called artist who dismissed people's love of their pets and wish to memorialise them and see them in paint? He maybe a technician, but he's no artist.

Copyright 2019 by Laura Harrison McBride