Welcome to the whimsical world of Independent Puppy!
From tea towels brimming with wild blueberries to tiny cards of dogs in bathing suits, Independent Puppy brings a dose of beauty and delight into the everyday.
Each product begins as an original painting by Maine watercolor artist Katherine Messenger and is then designed by her and sustainably produced in small batches at the highest level of quality.
Founded in Blue Hill, Maine, at the close of 2023, Independent Puppy is a 100% woman-owned company that is eco-conscious, not on Amazon, family-operated, and proudly made in America.
Curious about custom work or learning more?
Ping me at katherine@independentpuppy.com.
Want to be a stockist? We’d love to have you.
Contact Katherine directly, or order on Faire.
Thanks to my handsome models for helping me capture rock-skipping in ink for @sapirjournal!
Aug 20
One of my favorite things to do is to paint on deadline on our back porch in the morning in summer. On deadline because I love the speed and necessity of it, and I tend to also do better, un-fussier work this way. These drop caps are in the ink stage for the summer issue of @sapirjournal. Stay tuned for the next post, with these in color! There will be turquoise and tangerine! Also, note my awesome @emma_bridgewater cup with art by the legendary @matthewricewatercolours and also my faithful sleepy assistant, Bingo the Cat.
Aug 14
Excited to send off this opening order to @gusandrubyletterpress in Boston! I’ve been saying it all year, but flat note cards really are having a moment. Illustrated on the front and the back, they delight the writer and the recipient … and it’s kind of great there isn’t a ton of white space to fill! Also, note the brand-new Mallard duck flat note cards. Maybe my favorite design yet, but as you well know, I am partial to round birds!
Aug 13
It’s high summer, so here is a lobster appreciation post! The basic art for this—red and blue watercolor lobsters—was made in the margin of another painting, and out of it I created the first real collection. A reminder to always doodle in the margin when you have a hot idea. You never know what that glimmer might become!
Aug 8
Ready to become a wholesale stockist?
View all products on Faire using the link below—or place an order with the chief puppy herself:
katherine@independentpuppy.com.
Where to find Independent Puppy
Right now, Independent Puppy is a fledgling—but bold!—Maine-coast caper, so most stockists are in the Pine Tree State, but we have a few in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Connecticut, New Jersey, California, and Michigan!
About Katherine
Hello! I’m Katherine Messenger, a watercolor painter and graphic artist living in Blue Hill, Maine. I have been running a design and illustration business for more than fifteen years, but only in 2023, thanks to a request from a college friend, did I start turning my art into products. She asked if I would make gift wrap and cards for a holiday pop-up in North Carolina. I did, and Independent Puppy was born.
All my work begins in a sketchbook, and drawing and inking are constant activities for me, whether I’m at my desk, the kitchen table, or courtside at my kids’ basketball practices. My ideas come from the world just outside my window. We live in dense woods just up a hill from Penobscot Bay. Chipmunks and chickadees abound, as do cormorants and crabs, harbor seals and deer (who relish eating my sea roses and phlox). Gulls and bald eagles circle overhead, and we thrill to the occasional owl or loon. These are what fill my head, and I anthropomorphize them in the tradition of Beatrix Potter and E.H. Shepard. The wonderful, quivering lines of Peter Spier and the joyful color of Richard Scarry are running in the back of my mind, too, and they encourage me to be playful and try new tacks. Who doesn’t look at a stately loon in the water and wonder what sort of sunhat she might wear? And what if a cormorant decided to try out SUPing? I draw to see.
Once an idea is ready to become a painting, I sketch it at size on Arches cold-press watercolor paper, ink it with Pigma Micron pens, and flood it with bright pools and dabs of Kuretake paints, which can function as gouache or watercolor depending on how much water is added. When I’m satisfied with an illustration, I scan and edit it and place it within a design framework that I can output correctly for a printer or manufacturer. I collaborate with individual firms in America that work in sustainable ways and that I know by experience can deliver at the highest levels of quality. Every detail matters, and every detail must be checked, proofed, and readjusted. I am very proud of the fact that I manage all three parts of this business: making the art, designing the products, and sourcing the manufacturers who can meet my standards.
In addition to the products you can find in stores—from cards and stickers to coasters and tea towels—I do custom projects for individuals and businesses. Need an illustrated map, a website designed, a refreshed logo? Send me a note; I would love to hear from you. While most of my work draws on the wild and ragged coast of Maine, I am eager to work with whatever inspires you. I am excited by quirky vintage finds, well-designed books, old photos and magazines (hello, prewar Fortune covers), illuminated manuscripts (and the medieval monsters therein), weathervanes, Rockwell Kent bookplates, and, of course, animals—endlessly animals, from the curious platypus to the stately, plump capybara.
Speaking of animals: Who’s the running pup in my logo, you ask? That’s Daisy the Jack Russell, one of my childhood pets. She may have been ornery. She may have reveled in her demands. But she was also charming and courageous. A fiercely independent dog, she reminds me to live and work and draw with a bit more bravado than I might otherwise.