美国马里兰州一只名叫山姆的狗很喜欢画画，而且在主人训练下成了画家，目前山姆已有画作22幅，售出的作品最高售价达1700美元。据主人介绍，山姆是侦探犬和牧羊犬的杂交品种，四年前被主人收养打算训练成专职服务犬。但是在训练过程中，主人发现了山姆的绘画天赋，便对其进行专门训练，于是才有了现在被美国绘画界热捧的“狗画家”。山姆的主人表示，山姆的抽象派绘画作品在纽约的很多美术馆都风靡一时，很多人还大老远从芝加哥专程赶来购买山姆的画作。

Paintings done by a dog called Sam are selling for up to $1,700 in Maryland, USA.

Using the lush（苍翠的，丰富的） surroundings of his home town of Eastern Shore, Maryland as his muse¹（创作灵感，沉思）, Sam's paintings are attracting a loyal art world following.

Some of his 22 paintings - done using a tailor-made（定做的） paintbrush held in his mouth - have sold for up to $1700 (£1,045).

"Sam is a regular renaissance² dog and his abstract paintings are all the rage（流行一时，风靡一时） with the hip³（时尚的） New York galleries," says Mary Stadelbacher, Sam's owner.

"He loves his painting and would happily carry on for hours if I left him to it.

"He loves to work in a variety of colors and layers his paintings with darker shades first and then moves on to lighter⁴ ones later."

Mary, who runs Shore Service Dogs, in the United States took in six-year-old Sam four years ago as a rescue dog.

"He had been bounced around a couple of dog pounds, so I couldn't have that," says Mary about Sam, who is a bloodhound（侦探犬）, sheep-dog cross.

"I took him in and intended to train him up as a fully⁵ fledged（成熟的） service dog."

However, soon after Mary took Sam in she was struck down by a botched operation that robbed her of the use of her right hand for a time.

"I never completed Sam's training because of my rehab（修复）," says Mary.

"So in the end I decided⁶ to keep him on to help me around the house."

Painting al-fresco（壁画） in the summer and by the heat of a bright fire in the winter, Sam the painting dog is a pooch（狗） for all seasons.

"Using his specialized⁷ training as a house-help dog, combined with my amateur（业余的） art background, Sam is a fully trained artist," explains Mary.

"He takes the paint-brush mouth piece and will approach the canvas（帆布） and begin painting on the simple command of 'paint'.

Inspired to teach Sam to paint after seeing a spate⁸ of painting animals, Mary and Sam help to keep Shore Service Dogs centre open with the money made from the art sales.

"I saw dolphins painting and elephants painting, so I thought why not a dog?" explains Mary.

"He has been exhibited in swanky（时髦的，炫耀的） New York galleries such as Denise Dibro's studio and art collectors have bought his work from as far a field as Chicago.

"We even had one woman buy her dog one of Sam's paintings as a birthday present.

"He is quite a unique abstract artist."