The following is taken from the book "The Story in the Picture: Inquiry and artmaking with young children" by Christine Mulcahey, p.69-70.

"They discussed the pets they had, and many of them had dogs or cats. I then showed them Country Dog Gentlemen, a painting by Roy de Forest, who creates many paintings and sculptures of dogs.
I was surprised to find that the children loved his painting.
...About a month prior, I had read Why is Blue Dog Blue? which is about the blue dog paintings by George Rodrigue.
...When I asked the children why the artist would paint dogs that way, Sherri replied, "The artist can do whatever they want. If they want to paint that way, they can." And so the children painted and drew their dogs and animals any way they wanted too!"

The above image comes from "The Country Dog Gentlemen Travel to Extraordinary Worlds" website produced by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Free noon-hour arts workshops at the Art Gallery of Alberta as well as lots of educational programs and activities for children. School Programs at the AGA.