At work

In Memory - Rose and Daisy

How Block Dog Paintings Started

My Block Dog Paintings began as wood remnants left over from a cedar deck we were building.  I like to paint on board, and when I saw my husband cutting up the pieces of wood and tossing them into the wood bin, I thought, why not make a painting instead! I love dogs and had already done a few small dog paintings for friends so I decided to paint dogs on the blocks of wood. I gave them as gifts and people loved them. I started calling the series Block Dog Art. I now sell my Block Dog Art in several galleries in the RI and MA area. It is very satisfying to create art from what would have been hauled off to the dump or burned as kindling.  I guess you can say I recycle, and that my paintings are not just colorful but also "green" .

 The Process

First the wood is cut either into a square or a rectangle, depending on the design I come up with, and then sanded, primed, painted (the best part) and varnished. Each piece is original, hand-painted and comes ready to  hang. The fun part of the process is coming up with a breed and a design for that breed.  I like to exaggerate the subject with bold color and distinctive shapes.

About Me
One of nine children, I was born in Boston, and lived most of my life in New England.  I grew up in Westport, MA and have remained in and around the SouthCoast area. I have three grown sons.  Although my interest and love has always been in art, my career took a different path.  I worked for ten plus years as a computer software manager at Lotus Corporation and IBM in Cambridge. I worked on the first and last Lotus 123 software for the Mac (remember that!)  and started the first quality engineering lab for Media 100, a digital video editing system.   After retiring several years ago, I found the urge to paint still strong, and so embarked on what I call my “third life”.   Much of my time and energy is now spent painting ( in acrylics and oil) , studying other artist past and present, and taking selective classes and seminars and workshops. 

       Recent Awards

• Honorable Mention  "Artist’s Choice" - Portsmouth Arts Guild
• Honorable Mention   “Bon Appetit" - Rhode Island Watercolor Society,  Pawtucket, RI
• The Betty Burroughs Woodhouse Award of Excellence  "8th Annual Little Compton Summer Art Show" 
•  Honorable Mention  Jaffrey Civic Center, Jaffrey, NH 

Thanks for Reading,

Phyllis Dobbyn Adams