Hog Hammock Earrings

Hello y'all! As my very first blog post I want to feature the painting that started it all for my business! This was a labor of love that I painted for my husband. It features hubby running to the caught hog which is sporting one of our hog dogs on each ear with a third dog coming in hot on his heels. The white dog, Cotton, was a really special dog, of the once in a lifetime variety.A bird-bulldog cross. He'd go forever, pure heart. Tough as nails, Iv'e seen him stuck in three or four places and still raring to go. We hunted him before the cut gear and tracking collars came into being and he was a rough one who would bark once or twice and then catch!
The red ring neck gyp in the picture is "my" dog, Molly. I claimed her after another of our hunting dogs tore into her and just about killed her. I nursed her back to health and she has a special place in my heart. She must have some Catahoula in her since she always throws a catahoula merle puppy in her litters. She is a close range hog dog, and has often found and caught hogs close to the jeep when the other dogs didn't know they were there! She's good for hunting smaller places.
Ol Yeller is the third dog in my depiction. She was a yellow black mouth curr we had. She was a pretty good strike dog, and a good help dog. I painted her doing her job of helping the bay.
My husband hunted off the old jeep in the picture as a small boy, and we have raised all four of our kids on it. I painted it in the scene surrounded by plant life that grows in the places we hunt, although usually much thicker! We hunted one area a lot and were usually rewarded with a barr hog there. We called that special spot "Hog Hammock"
"Hog Hammock Earrings" started as a Christmas gift for my husband, Crockett, who had to be away from home for three months while he worked in Texas. Our children were very young at the time and it was a long drawn out process trying to finish the painting. I think it took me about 6 weeks altogether. I really had not done too much on a canvas before this since I had worked as a mural artist going to homes and businesses. It was a learning process. I took my camera to the woods to photograph the specific plants I wanted in the scene. I used photos of the jeep and dogs from hunts we'd been on. I had to picture my hubby running from memory. This is the way a painting is made!
Since then Iv'e done countless paintings from other people's photos and ideas. My business has morphed from me doing paintings on my own and focusing on selling prints, into being more of a custom clientele who want their art personalized! I can work from several photos to put their dogs, and sometimes themselves, into the scene they have in mind.
It has been a very exciting few years and I look forward to seeing where this art of mine takes us!
~Monica Turner

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