[英语阅读]美国狗画家作品热销

Paintings by dog sell for more than £1,000

美国马里兰州一只名叫山姆的狗很喜欢画画，而且在主人训练下成了画家，目前山姆已有画作22幅，售出的作品最高售价达1700美元。据主人介绍，山姆是侦探犬和牧羊犬的杂交品种，四年前被主人收养打算训练成专职服务犬。但是在训练过程中，主人发现了山姆的绘画天赋，便对其进行专门训练，于是才有了现在被美国绘画界热捧的“狗画家”。山姆的主人表示，山姆的抽象派绘画作品在纽约的很多美术馆都风靡一时，很多人还大老远从芝加哥专程赶来购买山姆的画作。

Paintings done by a dog called Sam are selling for up to $1,700 in Maryland, USA.

 

Using the lush surroundings of his home town of Eastern Shore, Maryland as his muse, Sam's paintings are attracting a loyal art world following.

Some of his 22 paintings - done using a tailor-made paintbrush held in his mouth - have sold for up to $1700 (£1,045).

"Sam is a regular renaissance dog and his abstract paintings are all the rage with the hip New York galleries," says Mary Stadelbacher, Sam's owner.

"He loves his painting and would happily carry on for hours if I left him to it.

"He loves to work in a variety of colors and layers his paintings with darker shades first and then moves on to lighter ones later."

Mary, who runs Shore Service Dogs, in the United States took in six-year-old Sam four years ago as a rescue dog.

"He had been bounced around a couple of dog pounds, so I couldn't have that," says Mary about Sam, who is a bloodhound, sheep-dog cross.

"I took him in and intended to train him up as a fully fledged service dog."

However, soon after Mary took Sam in she was struck down by a botched operation that robbed her of the use of her right hand for a time.

"I never completed Sam's training because of my rehab," says Mary.

"So in the end I decided to keep him on to help me around the house."

Painting al-fresco in the summer and by the heat of a bright fire in the winter, Sam the painting dog is a pooch for all seasons.

"Using his specialized training as a house-help dog, combined with my amateur art background, Sam is a fully trained artist," explains Mary.

"He takes the paint-brush mouth piece and will approach the canvas and begin painting on the simple command of 'paint'.

Inspired to teach Sam to paint after seeing a spate of painting animals, Mary and Sam help to keep Shore Service Dogs centre open with the money made from the art sales.

"I saw dolphins painting and elephants painting, so I thought why not a dog?" explains Mary.

"He has been exhibited in swanky New York galleries such as Denise Dibro's studio and art collectors have bought his work from as far a field as Chicago.

"We even had one woman buy her dog one of Sam's paintings as a birthday present.

"He is quite a unique abstract artist."