Jigsaw Puzzles Featuring Barnie Paw Print Designs

A look at my range of jigsaw puzzles featuring Barnie Paw Print designs. But who was Barnie and where do these modern abstracts come from? 

Jigsaw Puzzles Featuring Barnie Paw Print Designs

Who Was Barnie?

Barnie was two months old when we adopted him, a cute little brown and white rescue puppy. We assumed he would end up to be roughly the size of a Jack Russell as his Mum was a very small dog. She was also 19 years old! Barnie had spent his life shut in the bathroom, living in the shower tray! The owners didn’t want him and his Mum was too old to cope with him. What a life for a puppy! We loved him at first sight and the feeling appeared to be mutual. As he got older, Barnie’s legs kept getting longer and longer and it was clear that ‘Dad’ must have been some type of large hound!

Gosh He Could Be Naughty!

It is just as well Barnie was cute as he got away with so many things. He ate one of a pair of new sandals and took a bit chunk out of the top of one of my boots. Our wooden coffee table still bears his teeth marks.

So we shouldn’t have been surprised when he ran across some newly laid wet concrete and left his paw prints in it. I confess, we just laughed and said it added to the character of the house. Of course, being an artist, I couldn’t leave it at that and took a photograph of the paw prints and started to play. And that is how ‘Barnie Paw Print Designs’ began. I talk more about that in an earlier blog.

He Loved Our Kitten Stevie Mouse

I wasn’t sure how Barnie would react when I brought in a dying four week old kitten. The kitten survived, and Barnie got fully involved in feeding and cleaning the kitten! He adored her and became her official guardian and we would often find them curled up to sleep together in bed.

Barnie Paw Print Designs

In manipulating the photographs I found I could create essentially modern abstracts but still retain the Barnie paw prints. I loved creating the initial designs. Barnie would sit next to me as if watching what I was doing on the computer screen. I would ask him about a particular colour scheme or texture. It honestly felt like he was part of the process. ‘Paw Prints Colour Explosion’ quickly became a favourite of mine, and also with my customers who have bought this design on wall art, scarves, throw pillows, phone cases and a jigsaw puzzle.

After a while I started to play with kaleidoscopes and although the paw prints were not so obvious in these designs I knew they were in there somewhere. And Barnie seemed to approve so that made it okay with me.

Barnie Suddenly Got Sick

One morning, Barnie wouldn’t get out of bed. We rushed him to the vet who thought he had hurt his back and put him on anti-inflammatories and cage rest. Stevie Mouse spent a lot of time trying to break Barnie out of his cage by chewing on the bars. In the end she gave up and slept on a blanket on top of the cage so she could be near her big brother.

But when the treatment and cage rest made no difference, x-rays were done which revealed that Barnie had eaten a pointed grass seed, the bane of our lives here during their season. It had migrated from his stomach and it had lodged in his spine causing an infection. He must have been in so much pain! It was a full blown emergency that required surgery. Unfortunately, before he got as far as surgery, the infection from his spine caused meningitis and our beautiful boy was a shadow of his former self. We were completely devastated.

We all fought hard to save him. Barnet Boy and I visited him at the clinic twice a day to massage his legs and do physical exercises and try to get him to eat. He did start to begin to totter around on his legs and things looked hopeful but then he collapsed again. When he started having continuous seizures we knew we had no choice but to let him go. He was only five years old.

For an awful long time I couldn’t look at a Barnie Paw Print Design. I certainly had no interest in creating new ones. It was like a big hole had opened up inside me where all my creativity had been.

New Rescue Dogs Filled The Hole

After a while we got two new rescue dogs, Spud and Ringo. My boy Spuddy started to sit next to me while I worked on the computer, just like Barnie used to.

One day I said to Spud that perhaps it was time to create some new Barnie Paw Print Designs. I took his tail wag to as a sign of support! Summoning up the spirit of Barnie, I started creating a new collection of images based on Barnie’s original paw prints. I called it ‘Paw Prints Next Generation’. I created 20 new designs, just pushing the edges of what I could achieve with the original photograph while still retaining the paw print concept.

Since then I have added a few more to the main collection with names like ‘Paw Prints Tummy Rub’ and ‘Seaside Paddle’ and ‘Catch Me If You Can’. There are now around 100 Barnie Paw Print Designs available on a range of products, many of them on jigsaw puzzles with free shipping in the USA and Canada from my Pictorem store. They make the perfect gift for a dog lover! And of course they are a lovely way for me to remember our boy Barnie.

Where Can You Purchase These Jigsaw Puzzles?

The Barnie Paw Print Design images featured in this article are all available from my Pictorem store as jigsaw puzzles (in different sizes 120-1500 pieces) and fine art prints with free shipping within the USA and Canada only. Click on any image to be taken to a purchase page with more information. The designs are also available on a range of fine art prints in different sizes and formats.

For home decor items (prints, throw pillows etc) and accessories (scarves, phone cases and more) featuring my Barnie Paw Print Designs please visit my RedBubble store. 

Before you go

My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.

You can follow me on Facebook.

Thank you for reading!