- Laura Grisham
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- Added 20 Jun 2011
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It's always a bit daunting when a family member commissions you to capture someone else's dog on canvas. Especially if you've never even seen the dog in person. But that's exactly what happened here. Actually, Cole McCallister has not yet joined our family but he has been with my niece Hannah for so long that he just fits right in. KIA was painted as a Christmas gift from Cole to his mother. According to Cole, the African Basenji is a very rare, old breed that originated in Africa. They were used by African Pygmies to hunt. The breed has long legs, and the hunters would carry their dogs over their shoulders and hold onto its legs while carrying them. I believe he also mentioned that there are renditions of the African Basenji at the foot of the Sphynx in Egypt. What a wonderful experience it was to capture this majestic breed on canvas. I used copper and gold watercolor mixed in with my acrylics to give the glow you are able to see in the original. I just can't seem to stop using the metalics!
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Anonymous Guest 07 Apr 2012
Thank You Lionel! Yes, It's true. They are Barkless! We have five Basenji's. Three females and two males, all are Champions or of Champion lneodbilos. We have been involved with Basenji's for a long time and have for the last ten years or so, shown all of our dogs. Several years ago when we were looking for a new male Basenji puppy to show now known as Ace we noticed a real lack of quality breeders, there are many breeders out there but in our search we realized that many were uneducated in the breed or were just down right rude, many had never even heard of common health related issues when we questioned them about the subject. we realize this is a somewhat lesser known breed but we didn't realize how few quality breeders their were. After we found Ace we decided that we would start breeding our Basenji's. We felt we have quality genetics to offer and are knowledgeable of the breed. After we had our first litter it didn't take long for us to realize we were not the only ones looking for quality genetics form a trust worthy breeder.