31 Fetch

It wasn’t long after Alice arrived in our lives that I realised tennis balls were going to become an important part of our daily routine. Alice, our Labradoodle, flew up from Christchurch in October 2013, a small bundle of enthusiasm with a remarkable ability to turn ordinary things into great adventures. Of all the toys available to her, nothing quite matched the excitement of a tennis ball.

 

Fetch was the first painting inspired by Alice and marked the start of a series devoted to her fascination with these bright green objects.

 

The idea was simple. A dog sits patiently on the pavement outside a gallery window, staring at a framed picture of a tennis ball floating in a brilliant blue sky. A small white cloud drifts beneath it. The ball is perfectly positioned, almost close enough to reach, but a pane of glass separates it from the dog.

 

For a dog, this must be especially frustrating. Everything about a tennis ball suggests movement. It should bounce, roll, disappear into the grass and be retrieved. Yet here it is, suspended in the sky, going absolutely nowhere.

 

I liked the humour of that contradiction. The dog understands what a tennis ball is for, but the rules have somehow changed. Instead of chasing it, she can only sit and look.

 

Colour played an important part in bringing the idea together. The intense blue sky gives the tennis ball an almost heroic presence, while its familiar green connects with the foliage surrounding the building. Against the more subdued colours of the pavement and tiled wall, the framed image becomes the natural focus of attention. It is a simple arrangement, but one that relies on colour to make the ordinary seem extraordinary.

 

The gallery setting adds another layer to the story. We often stand in front of artworks, studying them, looking for meaning or simply enjoying what we see. Here, the dog has become the gallery visitor. Her interest is entirely genuine, though I suspect she cares less about artistic interpretation than about the possibility of a good game.

I particularly enjoy a photograph taken while I was working on Fetch. I’m at the easel painting the dog, while Alice, still a puppy, sits below watching me work. There is something wonderfully circular about that moment. I’m studying a dog studying a tennis ball, while a real dog studies me.

 

Alice would eventually appear in several more paintings, each exploring another aspect of her personality. What began as a simple observation grew into a collection of stories about curiosity, patience, temptation and the pleasures of everyday life.

 

Looking back, Fetch wasn’t a change in artistic direction. It was simply the arrival of a new character, one who would inspire me more than I could have anticipated.

 

Sometimes the best ideas arrive without much planning. In this case, they arrived on four legs, with a wagging tail and an unreasonable enthusiasm for tennis balls.