Bio

Merle Bishop is a contemporary New Zealand artist inspired by the humour and happiness of dogs (especially when they’re at the beach!). By nature, in every sense of the word, dogs are colourful. As Merle explains, her signature pieces (happy dogs art, dog runs in, runs out, runs across the image) portray the energetic, continual ritual of not only dogs but of life: “dogs are fun and know how to remain happy!”

I see ordinary things and ideas emerging and developing in my mind, a never ending flow…they are just thoughts, fun-loving imaginings that eventually find their place on the paper, initially for my own pleasure but fanned by the recent discovery that these scribblings also bring pleasure to others.

Merle is strongly influenced by her graphic design background. Her first running dogs were mono-prints, a series created in 1990 called, “dog, fog, jog…” These prints were made as a temporary alternative to etching. Soon, she began painting fish swimming alongside the dogs. This soon developed into dogs swimming with fish, the fish became flying fish, and, before long, the dogs were flying too. Along with her colourful wall art and pastel painting, Merle has also created sensory sculpture, including a bronze sculpture nz dog with its body parts labelled in braille.