Running Dog

This image was created from a memorable sunny day on the beach. Exchanging concrete for sand, noise for silence, food for thought. A day where landlocked city dwellers escaped to the smell and the pull of the ocean. A place where the sun drew large shadows as dogs and people smiled happily without a care and without prejudice, if only for a day. This was where our senses came alive, where our heart's felt lighter and our minds were free. And a place where children and passersby laughed warmly as a happy Staffordshire Bull-terrier we loved very much ate ice-cream from a cone, grinning from ear to ear. It is a memory that will live with me for all of my days. Days of simple pleasures, sharing the good times with the things closest too me.

As for the styling of this piece, I’ve always been fascinated with free running ink on paper and keen to incorporate this into a piece of work. The shapes set free can be so expressive. Shadows too have the same quality of striking and engaging the imagination. I find combining both with a graphical or photo-graphical form can add so much to a composition, changing context, focus and morphing the subject into something completely different. The yellow in this piece depicts the sun, the sand and the memory – all were truly golden from that day. Now gone – but never forgotten.

I didn't want to show the facial detail of the subject as I wanted to keep that for myself. Some memories should be personal after all.

Justin Robert Price
creative / concepts / design / art / thinking.