Tillamook Cheddar, the latest visiting Masterworks Foundation artist, isn’t exactly snobby, but she does prefer the finer things in life, Burberry coats, European art galleries and cheese.

Actually, ‘Tillie’, as her friends call her, prefers the cheese to the expensive coats, and if truth were told, would rather hang out by the cheese table than schmooze with guests at her art openings.

If you’re a struggling artist given to fits of jealousy, you might want to turn away right now, because Tillie, dubbed ‘New York’s Hottest New Artist’, is a Jack Russell Terrier.

Tille was recently in Bermuda with her companion and career manager, F. Bowman Hastie III to open a weekend show ‘Petrel’ that opened at the Masterworks Gallery on March 23.

Tillie’s visit to Bermuda caught the attention of the world, and will be broadcast on the CBS Sunday Morning Show on April 15 at 10 a.m. with host Bill Geist.

“I first noticed her artistic impulses when she was just six months old,” Mr. Hastie told the Royal Gazette. “I was writing with one of those yellow legal pads, and Tillie climbed up on my lap and started scratching away on the page. I had the sense she was making marks, but I couldn’t see them. So I had the idea of using carbon paper to record them.”

When given the paper, Tillie became very focused, and scratched away for five or six minutes. When she stopped, Mr. Hastie was amazed at the tangible product of her work.

“I was thinking, ‘wow, she made a drawing’,” he said. “She seemed to enjoy it. I thought it was a fun thing. She was making these little drawings around the house.”

Tillie was born in Portland, Oregon, but now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is named for Tillamook Cheddar, a popular type of cheese in Oregon. Her art was just a hobby, until a friend decided to open a gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Tillie was one of the first artists featured.

“Lo and behold someone bought a piece,” said Mr. Hastie. “It made me realise there was something there. I also enjoyed the experience of the first exhibition and the way people responded to it. I liked the way the pieces looked. Tillie is just so into it.”

Mr. Hastie said Tillie has a passion for making art, and he has a fascination with looking at it. Tillie’s art is now taking them to the most prestigious corners of the globe including Gallery Beaulieu in Belgium and a popular arts fair in Amsterdam.

“She is a really good traveller,” said Mr. Hastie. “She is small enough that she can ride in the cabin with me. We came to Bermuda on American Airlines. For most airlines there is usually a two pets per cabin rule.”

Mr. Hastie admitted that in some ways, the art was a way to harness the Jack Russell’s natural tendencies, such as obsessive digging.

“She has been a really good dog her whole life,” said Mr. Hastie. “This breed is notorious for a lot of different things. They are not good with children, and they are very high energy. One thing dog experts say about them, is they want to have a job and they are bred to work. If you don’t find something for them to do, they are liable to come up with their own job, like guarding something that doesn’t need to be guarded or dismantling your furniture.

“We were lucky to happen upon this career for her. Her natural digging instinct is definitely part of it, although it is a little beyond that.”

He said she is “process oriented” showing little preference for colour for even the finished work. Tillie’s medium is prefabricated colour-transfer paper affixed to a mat board with a thorough coating of packing tape. The paint is a non-toxic oil stick.

“I use mylar as an insulating layer,” said Mr. Hastie. “She breaks through the paper, and the mylar makes it more durable. She can work at it longer before she tears it up.”

He said she never really comes into contact with the paint, although she does occasionally get a bit on her paws.

“She likes doing it,” Mr. Hastie said. “When she is working, she is very possessive of it, and very deliberate in the way she approaches it. She seems to have her own system. Once I take it from her and unwrap it, she releases attachment to it and is done with it.”

While in Bermuda this month, Mr. Hastie and Tillie visited schools to give demonstrations, and also met with other dogs and their companions at the Botanical Gardens for a special Tillie event last Saturday.

“At schools, we just present Tillie, and people take what they can from it,” said Mr. Hastie. “I don’t really have an agenda.”

Almost two years ago, Tillie took a break from her career, to give birth to a litter of puppies. Tillie’s son, Doc Strong-Heart Cheddar, now lives with Mr. Hastie and Tillie. Unfortunately, Doc has not proven to be a slice off the old block.

“Doc is more socially outgoing than Tillie,” said Mr. Hastie. “He likes kids more than Tillie does. Tillie is not crazy about them. She is not aggressive to them, but she tends to avoid them. We will see. I am not trying to push him into anything too quickly. When she is working he is honestly, a bit of a nuisance. He tries to eat the little bits that come off the edge. She uses her mouth and tongue on the work, but she is not ingesting anything.”

Like most artists, Tillie has taken her share of knocks. Jerry Saltz, of the Village Voice, apparently referred to Tillie as a “sham” in one review.

Partly to set the record straight, in 2006, Mr. Hastie published Tillie’s biography, ‘Portrait of a The Dog as a Young Artist’. In the book, Mr. Hastie denied that Tillie was a tad uppercrusty.

“Tillie remains, in essence, an ordinary dog,” Mr. Hastie wrote. “One of her greatest gifts to humans is the opportunity for us to expand our notions of what an ordinary dog is capable of achieving. It is a lesson that might extend to other species, including our own. Thank you, Tillie.”For more information about Tillie, go to her website at www.tillamookcheddar.com