My name is Ursula Hock-Henschke, Urs or Ursa called by friends. I was born in Germany but moved to the Netherlands in 1983 where I lived in a small town in the south west part of the country, close to the sea, untill december 2004.
After my husband died in december 2001, I decided in 2004 to sell my house and move to another place closer to where my best friend lives. She and her husband are running a pottery and also have Great Pyrenees.
Now I live in a small village in the east of the Netherlands near the German border, where I share my house with my 4 Great Pyrenees.

My artwork covers a wide range, from painting/drawing on canvas and paper, china painting to sculpturing and digital artwork. Since I was a teenager I am attracted by "creating" stuff. I never have seriously studied art, but followed some workshops for the different sections I was interested in.

When I retired from work in 1990 I had more time to spend and I divided it to my old passion [the art] and a new one, the passion for the Great Pyrenees dog which came with adopting a puppy of this breed. In the early 90's I mostly did china painting and some commissioned work for friends and acquaintances.
The passion for the Great Pyrenees grew and I decided , with the guidance of a very good friend/breeder/mentor, to breed my first litter in 1993. The litter was born in may 1993 carrying my registered kennel name: Ursa's Signum. Translated in English it means the sign of the bear [Ursa is the Latin name for the female bear], or the sign of Ursa which is derived from my first name Ursula.

For 10 years I spent most of the time with my dogs, but occasionally there was also time for my artwork. As you can imagine the models were mostly my Great Pyrenees or in commissioned work the dogs of the clients. Most of my work in this time was china painting.

<< My male from my first litter at the age of 10 years

In 2001 a big change came into my life as my husband died very unexpected in december 2001. As I was not able to go on with breeding, the litter born in january 2001 was my last one and I was happy that I kept brother and sister from this litter, like I did from my first litter. they were the children of the female I kept from my first litter.

The 2 puppies from my last litter

At that time I had 7 Great Pyrenees and the German Shepherd of my husband. I kept them as companions. Dividing my time between my dogs and my artwork kept me busy and gave me useful distraction during this difficult time.
Between 2001 and 2004 I lost 3 of the Great Pyrenees due to old age and cancer and the German Shepherd died in the summer of 2004 at 12 years old.

I was able to start selling my work on a more regular base and divided it in two parts, one, only dedicated to the Great Pyrenees under the name Great Pyrenees Fancy and the other dedicated to different subjects under the name Ursa's Signum.

<<     the dogslove it when there are visitors,            espacially kids

I discovered eBay and another place for selling my designs on different range of merchandise: Cafepress. It is far from making a living out of my work but at least I can buy some extra cookies for my furried family :-) Lately I discovered the possibilities of creating artwork with the computer which is very intrigueing to me.