Meet The Artist
Meet the Artist: Guillaume Bernard a.k.a. @DogsOnTime
Welcome to the magical (and adorable) world of Guillaume Bernard’s anthropomorphized horological paintings.
By Rhonda Riche
Editor-At-Large
When creating, having a message is important, but sometimes artists just want to have fun. That’s why we’re so drawn to the work of Guillaume Bernard, a.k.a. @DogsOnTime.
The French have an expression: ”l’art pour l’art.” It means: “art for art’s sake,” and it summarizes a philosophy that says authentic art is independent of social values and utilitarian function, be that didactic, moral, or political.
We first became aware of Guillaume Bernard’s Instagram account when it was shared by Lydia Winters on the Instagram page for the This Watch Life Podcast and @badartnicewatch (shout out to Bryan Braddy!).
Since @badartnicewatch and @thiswatchlifepodcast are two of the most positive pages on all of social media, we knew that @DogsOnTime would make us smile. But are Guillaume Bernard’s expressive portraits art?
The answer is an unequivocal yes!
Inside Out
At first glance, Bernard’s canine concepts would fall under the label of “Outsider Art,” a label assigned not by the artists but by art historians, critics, and collectors. It gets bandied about a lot because it’s an easy way to categorize a broad range of work that doesn’t have a unifying style.
Some of the best-known names of “Outsider Artists” include Howard Finster, Bill Taylor, and Pauline Simon – all of whom now have works in the permanent collections of major museums.
These artists were, like Bernard, self-taught. “I always drew as a kid but was never encouraged,” he explained. “Then, when I was 15 years old, a neighbor bought me a kit and said, ‘Paint me a picture of the bridge.’” This small act of encouragement brought Bernard joy and changed the course of his life, leading him to a career as a scenic artist and calligrapher specializing in high-end events.
Fast forward a couple of years, and Bernard was enjoying life in a small town in France with his partner Sarah and an assortment of pets. Then, the inevitable happened.
“In February of 2023, we lost one of our dogs,” he told Watchonista. “I hadn’t drawn for years, but I was going through old pictures, and I was going to paint him as a memory.” One of the images was of Bernard and his pet at the ocean in which he was wearing his Patek Philippe Nautilus 5712 and, as he states, “two things became one.”
Sorry, did we not mention that Bernard was already a watch enthusiast? Well, he was. In fact, when we met up during Watches and Wonders 2024 in Geneva, he was sporting a Cartier Ronde Croisière.
Introduced in 2015, our encounter with Bernard at Watches and Wonders 2024 marked the first time we’d seen one of these sporty timepieces in the wild. It validated our assumption that Bernard was not like everybody else.
That is why we were surprised when Bernard said he doesn’t see himself as an iconoclast. “I live by the rules, so posting on Instagram was going out of the box,” Bernard said. “The first paintings I did were for me. I never expected more than two followers.”
Why Watches?
For Bernard, the inspiration to anthropomorphize pets and accessorize them with watches was an emotional choice. “It was the best therapy I ever had,” he said.
Bernard’s motivation is personal. But for people looking at his work, the idea of giving pets human characteristics opens up a whole new conversation. This is especially true for watch connoisseurs who can’t help but read into what each timepiece these canine characters are wearing.
Bernard’s style looks loose and assured; however, there’s a lot of thought that goes into the storytelling aspect of each image. “It’s difficult to talk about a watch through painting,” he explained. “You are painting the history of the time, and the more you think you know, the less you do.”
For example, one of Bernard’s private commissions asked him to incorporate a Cartier Tank. As a result, he fell down the rabbit hole while learning more about the history of Andy Warhol’s Tank and its place in pop culture.
Hounds of Love
Of course, pop culture, specifically Instagram, plays an important role in how Bernard communicates his unique worldview with the universe. “I never expected it,” he said, laughing. “I’m really bad at social media, but I got 108 followers with my first post.”
Through his Instagram account, he has also found a broader sense of community. Case-in-point: He is also a cat lover and will draw felines with watches too.
Bernard told us that he doesn’t know what he’ll do next; he only knows that he’ll keep creating. He is also very keen on collaborative commissions: “I have such a different style. I don’t want to please everyone, so I’m so grateful when someone commissions [an artwork]. This is my dream.”
To learn more, check out Guillaume Bernard’s Instagram page, @DogsOnWatch.