Wet noses and drooping tongues invite viewers inside The Yellow Dog Tavern. At the new restaurant, local artist Gil Jawetz portrays man?s best friend in his first solo exhibit in Baltimore, Big Dogs ? a series of oil paintings.
The 14-piece show includes brightly colored, affectionate portraits of basset hounds, Great Danes, glorious mutts and other furry friends, Jawetz said.
Jawetz?s oil paintings portray special moments with dogs, not just the four-legged subjects themselves, he said.
“I paint the dogs and then the background, blurring it to give a sense that something?s happening. I want viewers to have a sense of movement or action,” Jawetz said.
For material for the exhibit, Jawetz used his white, mixed-shepherd named Pete as a model and combed his photo archive for images taken in Baltimore and New York dog parks.
“I really wanted the color to be a part of [the exhibit] experience,” Jawetz said. “I wanted the exaggerated color of the eyes to be like ?pow,? making it pop for the viewers and draw them into that experience.”
In the early ?90s, studying psychology at Johns Hopkins University, Jawetz had an epiphany during a basic drawing class that illuminated his artistic potential, said Craig Hankin, director of Hopkins? Homewood Art Workshops.
“On that particular day, he captured a likeness of his classmate that was truly exceptional. From that day on, he was really hooked on drawing and branchedout to what?s now his love of painting,” he said.
Amber Miller, co-owner of The Yellow Dog Tavern and a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, asked Jawetz to capture her four dogs? personalities in a commissioned painting.
From there, asking Jawetz to show at the tavern made perfect sense, she said. “Besides the obvious dog connection, having an exhibit here combines my personal passion for art with my partner [chef Anita Scheiding?s] passion for food,” she said.
Jawetz will donate 5 percent of sales from Big Dogs to abused, abandoned and shelter dogs protected by Recycled Love, a Baltimore animal rescue group, he said.
“I?m trying to bring awareness to the problems that are involved with animals in an urban environment. Recycled Love really does the serious work of helping Baltimore?s homeless animal population,” he said.
