Hounds of love

Sally Muir’s portraits of dogs, including her new book of paintings depicting rescued canines, subtly capture her subjects’ character and charisma

Words by Sophy Grimshaw

“Dogs are not an appendage to us – you’ve got to respect them as their own creature, and that’s how I try and paint them,” says the artist Sally Muir, whose quietly dignified portraits of dogs are collected in her books, including her newest, Rescue Dogs, and before that, Old Dogs. “I take them seriously as a subject. I’m always having to say to people: ‘I paint dogs, but not in the way you’re thinking!’” she laughs. “‘Dog art’ has a bad name somehow.”

The portraits in Rescue Dogs were painted over the course of two years. “I asked on social media for people to send me photos of their rescue dogs, and they always came with a tale. A lot of the dogs came into people’s lives at times when they were needed, whatever it is that dogs bring. It was touching.” This is the only one of Muir’s books to have annotating text, “because rescue dogs always come with a story”.

The nature of dog portraiture is that it’s often not practical, nor kind, to make your subject sit for you at length. Muir, who lives and works in Bath, does sometimes draw from life, with her whippet, Peggy, among her preferred models: “She sleeps all day long, so she’s perfect.” But her usual method is to paint from photographs. “It’s not so much about the quality of the photograph, but I do need to have a lot of angles.” This way of working added a logistical challenge to Rescue Dogs, as Muir had to keep track of hundreds of photos with names and contact details, to know which were of the same dog.

There was also a visual balance to strike, “of not having dogs that looked too similar”. Some breeds are rehomed in greater numbers than others, such as retired greyhounds, and Muir has a longstanding interest in Spanish galgo dogs, which are greyhound-like. “They are abandoned in huge quantities at the end of the hunting season, so you see them all over Spain.” She collaborates with a charity in Murcia, Galgos Del Sol, and her striking group portraits are drawn from life on a farm where rescued galgo hounds are cared for.

Muir began her creative career not as a painter, but as knitwear designer, founding the label Warm & Wonderful with partner Joanna Osborne in Covent Garden in 1979. Their “black sheep” jumper – a lone black sheep among white, on a jolly red background – was famously worn by Princess Diana.

“The first we knew was when we saw it on the front of a newspaper, which was so exciting,” remembers Muir. “I think in retrospect people read too much into it. She obviously thought it was a bit of a laugh. I don’t think she was sending a ‘get me out of here’ message.” The jumper, which David Bowie also purchased, was worn by Emma Corrin in The Crown and has now been reissued. “It’s amazing how it’s had this second life.”

She adds, “To be a knitwear designer, and to paint dogs, both things are slightly low in status, I suppose. Some people are horrified when you say you paint dogs. Which is good, actually, because it has given me the freedom to do whatever I want.”