One of my favorite Facebook friends is an artist I knew long before she picked up a brush. Baret Boisson began painting as an adult, and she’s entirely self-taught. Her work is enchanting, but I also love the delightful, intelligent essays she posts on her Facebook page about objects she’s collected or encountered, or images that spark her interest (including, most recently, photos of what turn-of-the-century ladies wore hiking — way, way too much; and a couple of the Cottingley Fairies photos — all the buzz in the late 1910’s). Baret and her pup Blueberry spent the past 3 months in France, and after seeing the first pictures she posted, I asked if she’d send a quick note and a handful of photos I could share on Dog Jaunt. Here they are — to see Baret’s work and learn more about it, check out her website, and be sure to “like” Baret Boisson Art on Facebook. Her posts will brighten your day.

“Blueberry is a little mutt whom I adopted last year from, fittingly, a rescue group called, ‘Dogs without Borders.’ They had found her at the South Central Animal shelter and called her ‘Crystal’ because of her one blue eye. I took her home, renamed her, and worked on socializing this tiny, timid creature.

I’m an artist living in Los Angeles and decided that I would take the summer of 2014 to travel around France. I would visit museums, get inspiration and paint. Blueberry was with me during the entire journey abroad, and suddenly I found myself photographing her in the context of these marvelous sights so as to create a perspective — how close a river was, or how big a monument was, for example. Indeed, I was using Blueberry in most of my images, placing her, asking her to ‘sit’ and ‘stay’, and then ‘releasing’ and praising her.

The process is collaborative, and Blueberry has become my little muse. We are a team, my little rescue dog and me.”

Blueberry atop a mailbox

Blueberry in front of Notre Dame, in Paris

Blueberry and an allée in Provence

Held aloft by La Rivière, in Paris’s Jardin des Tuileries

At Colette’s grave in the Père Lachaise cemetery (not dog-friendly, so be cautious re-creating this shot)

Blue-eyed pup watches blue-eyed (really!) Lusitanian horses training at Versailles’ Grande Écurie

Blueberry and the locks of love (on Paris’s Pont des Arts)

Thank you so much, Baret, for sharing these photos — it’s such a pleasure seeing how much fun you two had together as you traveled around France!