A Day in the life of an Artist at a Dog Show
The Dogs, The Characters, The Art. Oh, and the STINKIEST Dog I've ever met!
The Dog Show
We (by we, I mean, Me, Mr Dean and best-friend Jo-Jo who also helps me at Crufts, y’know,the bouncy one!) are all here at a one-day show at the NAEC in Stoneleigh called ‘Edition Dog Live’ it’s a Sunday and the show runs from 9am to 4pm and we set up the stand yesterday.
Why am I here? I’m an artist, primarily known for my dog art, so I tend not to do more traditional art fairs; I’m here to promote my art and sell some products to an ideal audience of dog lovers. There are demo’s, competitions, rare breeds, several ‘ask a professional’ sessions, dog world celebrities and lots of dog-themed shopping.
The show’s tagline?
“ The perfect day out for dogs and everyone who loves them “
You can bring your own dog and this brings a different and quite fun element to the show, I compare it to when the Lido’s open up their pools to dogs at the end of the season (think Pirates of the Caribbean, but with dogs). Ever so slightly chaotic, with the owner’s generally easily distracted!
I watch with a wry smile as my latest customer is dragged away from my stand by their dog desperate to reach the treats being offered at the stand opposite.
Do not worry, I got plenty of sales, a few commission orders and more photo’s of dogs than I know what to do with. It’s a day for meeting dogs, their owners, networking with industry contacts and building relationships.
The People
A few of my regular customers attend this show, we often see the owners of @fuzzyhounds, 2 dogs living their best lives, I have to hide their Instagram account from Thomasina (I think she’d judge me poorly as an owner in comparison!!)
It’s a slower pace to the likes of Crufts (the largest dog show in the world) therefore much better for those more in-depth and not rushed conversations.
Opposite me is
, a coach for dog business owners and owner of a fabulous holiday cottage in Robin Hoods Bay (dog friendly of course), we catch up and she shows me a fabulous illustration for her business by mutual friend and great illustrator, Jess Hogarth. Then the briefest of chats with commercial photographer Kerry of Fur & Fables fame, she’s the show’s official photographer so doesn’t have much time for chatting.
You get the idea, it’s a friendly, welcoming and the support for each other is real. Along side the sales I come away with a podcast invitation, ideas for new projects and a large number of new subscribers to my website email list.
Besides the dogs, it’s wonderful for people watching, you probably know by now it’s one of my favourite pastimes, one particular favourite was the lady walking around with her dachshund in a papoose rotating a hand-held fan around it to keep it cool. That’s percolating nicely as an idea for a new greeting card design.
My very first Dog Show like this was in London in 2016, there I met a lady who locked me in her sights and from a short distance shouted at me ‘Chow, Chow?’
I didn’t really understand her meaning, ‘Pardon?’, I shouted back. She strides over, like I’m dragging her away from something really important and says ‘Do you have anything with a Chow Chow on, no one ever does’, ‘Ah…’ I reply ‘I’m afraid not, maybe next time…’.
This became a bit of a running joke, every year at some point I’d hear ‘CHOW CHOW?!?” Shouted at me whilst she whizzed past and I’d shake my head and look apologetically at, usually her back as she rushed off to whoever was always so more important…until the year I DID have something. Around the fourth year, I remember pre-show, I couldn’t face another year of not having something for her so I very quickly sketched a Chow Chow and put it on a card, I even used capital letters as a bit of an ‘in-joke’, I was so excited to show her…
Only, I never saw her again, not at that show or any future one, or perhaps she’d given up and just stopped asking…
Even though the card was very much a rush job, not what I’d call my best, the run I had printed did sell out at the show and everyone who bought one said it was was rare to see anything with Chow Chow’s on, I like to imagine that someone who knew her bought one and sent it to her.
The Stinkiest Dog
Which brings me to this years character of the show, a lady with 2 Yorkshire Terrier puppies who we chatted with for a little while, she asked if we’d like to hold them, of course we would and both of us dived straight in for a bit of puppy love, sadly and through no fault of it’s own, the puppy, and there’s no polite way of putting this, reeked of piss!
We got some strange looks later as we sprayed each other with hand sanitizer to try and neutralise the stink. For the rest of the afternoon I’d wrinkle my nose and say ‘I still think I smell of piss…’, there you see, another gift from a memorable day!
Next time I’ll be reporting back from my Open Studio event and comparing it to the year before, it’s the last in-person event of this year for me and I’m going to welcome some uninterrupted time back in my Studio.
PS Over at The Design Trust, there’s a workshop I did for them about my experience and tips for using Substack as an artist, the live workshop has taken place but the recording is still available for sale here, but only for the next 2 days - if you’d like to watch it, you’ll need to purchase it by 17th July 2025 and you’ll have access to it until November, plus I’m still popping in and answering questions for people in the comments.
A great read. You’re such a talented writer. I’m always sorry when your post comes to the end!
I enjoyed every word, every second I spent with this post. Maybe one day, when I get that Podcast up and running, you can be my guest as well! Such talent!