Bloo
The sad-faced, blue chihuahua paintings
Music: 'Ask Your Heart' by Wang Leehom
Bloo sold by auction to benefit APROP, a shelter for abandoned animals in Pego, Spain
June 2021
If you like the painting Bloo on Blue, you might want to know the story behind its creation. Often visiting Jávea on the Costa Blanca, I had been recording experiences through cartoon vignettes. One of those sketches was mocking a No Dogs Allowed sign on the beach because it seemed to me such warnings were largely ignored. In the cartoon a little chihuahua appears near the top of a pyramid of dogs who are painting over the sign. The poor pooch has a bucket of paint on his head and is miserable.
Often I would visit a nearby shop and stroke the owner's sad-faced, trembling chihuahua who melted my heart every time. So although Bloo isn't a portrait, he was influenced by my tiny friend in Jávea. Within weeks of creating Bloo, I met a real blue chihuahua in Reykjavík en route to my family in Canada. I didn't even know blue chihuahuas were a thing! But it isn't the first time I created a painted dog that later manifested into something real (see what happened with Todd and Otto). Dogs enter our lives in surprising ways.
When I first began painting in Sheffield, in 2008, the style was pop-art and featured imaginary characters that remarkably became collectible. It wasn't until moving to Spain in 2015 that I shifted to a more realistic style of painting (see this collection of animals, for example). As I transitioned from creating cartoony painted personalities to more traditional methods, Bloo was the last fictional character to emerge. There have been no new ones since.
Bloo on Blue is an acrylic painting on stretched canvas, measuring 54x65 centimetres (and about 4 cm deep). It was completed in 2016.
If you like the painting Bloo on Blue, you might want to know the story behind its creation. Often visiting Jávea on the Costa Blanca, I had been recording experiences through cartoon vignettes. One of those sketches was mocking a No Dogs Allowed sign on the beach because it seemed to me such warnings were largely ignored. In the cartoon a little chihuahua appears near the top of a pyramid of dogs who are painting over the sign. The poor pooch has a bucket of paint on his head and is miserable.
Often I would visit a nearby shop and stroke the owner's sad-faced, trembling chihuahua who melted my heart every time. So although Bloo isn't a portrait, he was influenced by my tiny friend in Jávea. Within weeks of creating Bloo, I met a real blue chihuahua in Reykjavík en route to my family in Canada. I didn't even know blue chihuahuas were a thing! But it isn't the first time I created a painted dog that later manifested into something real (see what happened with Todd and Otto). Dogs enter our lives in surprising ways.
When I first began painting in Sheffield, in 2008, the style was pop-art and featured imaginary characters that remarkably became collectible. It wasn't until moving to Spain in 2015 that I shifted to a more realistic style of painting (see this collection of animals, for example). As I transitioned from creating cartoony painted personalities to more traditional methods, Bloo was the last fictional character to emerge. There have been no new ones since.
Bloo on Blue is an acrylic painting on stretched canvas, measuring 54x65 centimetres (and about 4 cm deep). It was completed in 2016.
Bloo on Blue by Wildago
Bloo holding the paint bucket in Jávea
I'll have a Bloo Christmas without you.
