Create your own dog gallery art collection
Dog Art is up and coming! With the new found dog craze of new Millenials and Gen Z pet parents, it’s not only bandanas, treats and dog tik toks that have increased immensely, but also artists offering personalized doggy art that make you want to redecorate your entire home, and attach an entire 1000sqft library to your only 500 sqft appartment just for you to display all the beautiful art work you want to collect. Decorate your shelfies for instagram with beautiful art work with these easy glow up tips!
As an illustrator myself, I have received many compliments on my own dog gallery wall which I have carefully curated and am still planning to extend in the months and years to come.
At the same time, I hear many people complain about especially personalized dog art being expensive and unaffordable. And yes, personalized dog art does have its price. Rightfully so though. You usually receive hand drawn art by a very talented, skilled and experienced artist that has bills to pay and food to buy.
I truly believe art should be enjoyed by everyone though, not only by those that have a massive disposable income. Everyone should have a beautiful home and be able to decorate it with pretty art. I myself collect art one-by-one because I couldn’t afford ordering 10 pieces at once either.
So I hear you and present you my TOP TIPS on how and where to source beautiful art for free and on a budget when you want to grow your dog art collection slowly.
1. COMMON DOMAIN DOG ART
I take copyright and intellectual property very seriously and therefore also ask you to refrain from STEALING intellectual property by just screenshotting or downloading art. There are sources to actually buy it from!
However…
Copyright in most countries only lasts up to 70 years after the artist’s death (Please always check copyright disclosures first though, some countries will have a longer copyright)….which means….all the beautiful art from before the 20th century and many from the early 1900’s are fair game to print and reproduce; so called public or open domain.
While this means especially that you can now use this art commercially, it also allows us to freely download high quality images for our personal use online. YAY!! More beautiful doggy art for our gallery walls!
Just print out the images yourself or have them printed by one of the many retailers like Walgreens, Office Depot or Walmart.
Many museums have most of, if not their entire, collection available to view online now. With the global pandemic, these offers have only increased and you can basically view and download any painting and artwork you have ever seen in a museum at the click of a finger.
Most collections are searchable by keywords, artist, genre, medium etc. and include art pieces on display and not shown or on loan to other museums.
So once you type in the magical three letter word….”DOG” you’re good to go. Extra tip: Type in Dog + Woman and you usually get awesome Dog Mom Paintings and art results.
There are differences in accessibility and usage of those websites, so I am naming you my favorite below (however, google public domain art, and you’ll find a buck load of results yourself!)
Commission Original Dog Art of your Pup from The Pretty Mutt!
because all dogs are pretty
THE RIJKSMUSEUM, AMSTERDAM
Please check the Rijksmuseums’s data policy here first.
The Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, one of my favorite art palaces in the world, even lets you make up your own collections. It’s basically a pinterest for art. If you were to visit the Reijksmuseum, their app will even set you a route for how to walk through the museum to view your saved pieces!
Click here to check out my full, yet growing collections for dogs, cats and dog mom art works that I created just for you, and sign up at the museum’s website to create your own gallery to share.
Click on some of my favorites below to get to the original files to download and learn more about the artist and piece.
Portrait of a young woman, with 'Puck' the Dog, Thérèse Schwartze, c. 1879 - c. 1885
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
THE NYPL is by far the most user friendly source for public domain art on my list. Under each selected art work, you will often find several different resolutions to download the image in, depending on your needs as well as clear indication whether a piece is in fact common domain or not.
They will even give you the correct citations for different methods if you are working on a scholar piece.
Here are just some of the amazing finds from the NYPL website. Click on each image to access the image’s main site to download.
Portrait of a girl with a dog on a sofa From The New York Public Library,
A print with the word 'Sorcerer' and depicting a portrait of a hunting dog From The New York Public Library,
Chiffons Parisiens À La Ville Et À La Scène. From The New York Public Library,
Azor (Hokusai Manga style) From The New York Public Library,
While I find the website not as user friendly, the “Louv” has of course one of the most extensive art collections, whereas their dog selection is not as impressive. Apart from being THE “Louv”, the other reason I am naming Le Louvre here is because you can browse all the other beautiful pieces that you may love. I have downloaded my F A V O R I T E painting - Ingres’ LA GRANDE ODALISQUE.
Furthermore, I have noticed that while other museum websites throughout the world work well with English key words, I had to use French to get the full result list on the Louvre’s ( in May 2021 at least) . So you don’t have to google in case you weren't tortured with French in school like me: Chien = dog, Femme=woman, Chat=cat
Please check here for the Louvre’s terms
Femme donnat le sein à un chien DEMARTEAU Gilles, gravé par,
Anonyme
Ecole inconnue
Formerly attributed to:
BOEL Pieter
Possible attribution:
LELY Peter, attribué à
(X. Salmon, 2019)
3. THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
Here are just two of the many lovely works you can download on the National Gallery of Art’s website.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Lady with a Dog, 1891
Micah Williams. Child with Pet Dog, c. 1825
Useum.org is a collection of all kinds of paintings from all over the world. Many art works are downloadable right from their page. However, if it’s not clearly marked as Public Domain, you will need to follow a couple of links to the original museum’s source to either find out if the image is free for use and/or get to the downloadable file.
I find this website great for getting an overview for what is out there in the different categories without having to scout through several individual museums.
This is how I discovered this lovely piece from the Dallas Museum of Art by John White Alexander.
John White Alexander, 1902-1902. oil on canvas. 60’’x40’’.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers great keyword search and lets you select to show only open access art pieces, so you won’t be sad to see beautiful pieces that have an active copyright protection but would fit sooooooo well into your collection…
My favorite pieces from the Met are both from Jean Honoré Fragonard. Click on the images to learn more about these beautiful pieces.
DOG FREEBIES!
Another great way to add to your dog art collection is making use of the many lovely freebies online. Many Pet Creatives will have regular freebies either sent to their newsletter subscribers for free or available on their website. While these range from stickers to IG post templates, you might be lucky and snag some cute graphics to hang up on your gallery wall.
freebie downloads by @doxdesign
freebie downloads by @doxdesign
Personally, I love the freebies by @doxdesign
Dox Design makes their colorful monthly freebies available through their private Facebook group for small businesses here. Check out all the awesome past themes on their website, if you don’t believe me.
We at The Pretty Mutt also offer monthly freebies to our newsletter subscribers, like the ones below.
If you love my art, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter for our monthly freebies as well as receiving news on special Sales on our ETSY shop.
DOG RESCUE FUNDRAISERS!
Many awesome pet artists work with rescues and animal organizations, regularly donating their time and talent to raise funds for animals in need. Often these art pieces are smaller sketches and priced lower than their regular art, so definitely a way to grab an original from your favorite illustrator while being mindful of your financial means AND doing good at the same time!
My favorite pet artists that partner with rescues and do fundraisers are these awesome women below. Make sure you follow them on their social media channels (click on the images) and subscribe to their newsletters (links in their IG bio) to not miss their next fundraisers or special sales!
Also check their online shops! Ordering ready made prints or digital download files to print yourself is also a great way to collect original art work from fabulous creators at an affordable price.
SOCIAL MEDIA EVENTS FOR PET ART
CLUBHOUSE
Recently I lucked out and attended a Clubhouse room called “Artists Drawing your Pet” hosted by The Council x The Pet Club.
A group of 8 illustrators with very different artistic styles took turns and illustrated your fur baby live. In return they only asked for likes, shares, free promotion and if you can (not required) a $ tip via Venmo.
This is how it worked:
Missy Art by @Stephaniejchoi
You uploaded a photo of your pup or cat in the pose you wanted them drawn in as your profile photo and they went to work. Once one illustrator finished a drawing, they took the next “client”. This way it was lucky dip who you got to draw your dog. Once the drawing was done, the artist uploaded the photo as their own profile pic for everyone to see and sent you the image via DM on Instagram.
I got this quick drawing made by @Stephaniejchoi and sent her $10 via Venmo. I’m so excited to have a new piece of Missy-Art in my collection!
TIKTOK & IG LIVES
@andreacaceresg regularly draws her followers in LIVE drawings on IG. Often her and another creator would draw the same follower at the same time in their LIVE together. Super fun extra: They draw it with their non-dominant hands.
Also, if you’re lucky she will pick you amongst her followers on TikTok to draw. Click here to follow Andrea on TikTok
FAMILY ART FOR YOUR DOGGY
The best art is home made art!
I had my baby nephews draw Missy. It’s modern abstract art for sure, but it’s Missy!
How about asking friends and family to create some kind of art piece of your dog for your next birthday instead of buying you a present you didn’t want anyway! Super sustainable too!
The great thing about art: It doesn’t have to be perfect!
HAVE YOUR DOG CREATE ITS OWN MASTERPIECE
Watch Missy’s attempt at her first art piece here
What you’ll need:
Canvas
Paint
Zip bloc bag or trash bag
Peanut butter or another sticky snack that needs to be licked off
How to:
3. Apply different colors of paint in spots on the canvas.
4. Carefully stick the canvas in a big enough zip bloc bag or trash bag and apply the treat with sticky texture OVER the plastic surface.
Just to be clear: DON’T LET YOUR DOG LICK PAINT!
Just for full disclosure. Don’t want to hear about anyone feeding their dog friggin paint.
5. Let your puppy go wild and lick off all the paint.
6. Once done, remove the canvas from the plastic bag and let air dry well
Voilá, new Dog Art Gallery Piece!
THRIFTING DOG ART
As a general thrift and vintage lover, most of my art is found at garage sales or thrift stores. Buying pet art at the thrift store ensures you snag one of a kind art in unique frames.
Stay on the look out, there’s more dog art out there than you think!
HOW NOT TO GROW YOUR DOG GALLERY WALL
Don’t go to Pinterest and just print out images you randomly downloaded. Please take your time to check the source, find out if you can buy the print and where and value art for what It is…Valuable manual labor and extreme talent and skills!
Please Please Please never ask an artist to paint something for free unless they are having a well described and clear offer to do so.
Always obey copyright regulations.
Do you already have a gallery wall? I hope I could inspire you to start one if not.
Share your own Doggy Gallery with the hashtag #prettymuttgallery and tag @theprettymutt for me to see and feature in my stories!
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