Lorena Pugh, Dog art, original and as limited-edition prints

Ever since she was a kid growing up in Silver Spring, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C., Lorena Pugh has had two loves: art and animals. She was able to combine both and is today a full-time artist, painting dogs. Pugh is the owner of Purebred Editions out of North Kingstown, R.I. She publishes many of her works as limited-edition prints.

Sales are brisk and life is grand, but it wasn't always that way. After completing studies at Montgomery College and Pratt Institute in New York (where she studied illustration), Pugh entered the "real world" with no clear-cut game plan. "My life consisted of food stamps and lousy jobs at first," she said. "I hand-painted clothing for the Mob and hot-stamped bags in a factory in Brooklyn. It was horrible."

She took a graphic design position with a computer firm in Boston and even opened up her own tiny graphic design studio in Newport, R.I. Things were looking up, but then the computer revolution hit full-force. "Suddenly, the mom-and-pop stores began using computers for their advertising and brochures," Pugh recalled. "They were my bread and butter, and suddenly I had almost no account base. I was back to square one."

Pugh took stock of her life and came to a conclusion. "I thought, 'If I'm going to go hungry, I might as well be painting.'" And that's what she did. She painted cows, "for fun," and discovered cow art was lucrative. "Soon I had cow posters, cow calendars, cow T-shirts and everything else cow before I 'moooved' on ­ sorry ­ to other animals." Her posters were published by Arnold Art and later Wild Apple Graphics.

Cows were paying the bills (so were pigs, ducks and bunnies), but when Pugh decided to paint something she truly loved, she picked her dog, Lucy ("be-cause I love Lucy!"). The painting was noticed by a catalog company, "In the Company of Dogs," that urged her to paint more canine art. "I find that dogs afford an endless supply of character studies and a lovely outlet for my peculiar sense of humor," Pugh said.

Lorena has always liked working in oils. "I love the ability to get fine detail, as well as a juicy, painterly effect," she said. "I like how it's a forgiving medium and that there's a long, wonderful history of its use. I do work in watercolors for many of my commissions, though. It's so much quicker for me than oils."

Pugh enjoys painting pretty much anything, not just dogs. "I love landscapes and I wish I had more time for them," she said. "I have always been drawn to depicting emotion and personality. And I just love animals, so I ended up painting dogs for my living."

An original oil painting by Lorena Pugh costs between $2,000 and $4,000. Watercolor commissions are usually $300 to $500. Most of her unframed prints are $75. Ms. Pugh's work may be viewed at www.purebrededitions.com . You may call the artist at (888) 317-9438.

Lorena Pugh

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