On Sunday, Chatham County artist Shannon Spoor Bueker will be on hand for a reception for her show, “Dog Life,” at the Brewery. The exhibition, the Chatham County Artists Guild February-March show, features more than a dozen paintings of dogs engaged in all manner of doggish activities.

The reception will run from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Carolina Brewery and Grill, 120 Lowes Drive, Suite 100.

Why paint dogs? Simple.

“I love dogs,” Bueker said. “I love their beauty, energy, silliness, optimism and intensity.“

The paintings portray her dogs in the woods, exploring, chasing intriguing scents, scattering squirrels.

“Every one of Shannon’s paintings tells a story of dogs intersecting with Chatham’s rural nature,” said Forrest Greenslade, president of the guild.

Bueker has lived in Chatham County for 15 years. Her studio is in her basement, where she and the paintings vie for space and light like plants.

The interaction she — and her dogs — have with the natural environment fuels much of her art.

“My drawing and painting have long been motivated by the need to respond to the beauty I see around me — the amazing grace of trees and plants, the fluidity of animals, the outrageous colors of the earth,” she said.

Bueker’s use of line and earthy color schemes lend her paintings a sense of movement and the outdoors.

“For me, the most compelling puzzle artistically continues to be orchestrating line and color,” she said. “The process of my painting is layering color and line, keeping wispy lines of charcoal, describing movement and strengths, and developing a rich, varied surface. I see my work as trying to expose the grace, reveal the density of it, unfolding the layers of interactions, interconnections and the surprising overlaps.”