PaintComponent Does not 'Fire'

apologies to all if this is a double post but I have posted already
and I cannot find my post (It is late at night).

I am creating my very first java app using the MVC framework and
attempting to place an image on a JPanel (See the GraphicalView class
below). My problem is that I get the Frame with a white background and
Exit button (As I would expect) but the PaintComponent does not fire
(I have run the app in debug and it does not fire).

Can anyone please tell me either what I am missing or what I am doing
wrong.

Many thanks in advance for any assistance offered.

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import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.JPanel;

public class ViewGraphical extends JFrame implements Observer
  {
  private Model model; // The Model to register with and
receive updates from
  private Controller controller; // The controller for events
  Image imgDog = null;
  JFrame theFrame;
  JPanel p;

  public ViewGraphical(Model m)
    {
    String lPath = "C:\\.......\\src\\";
    String fileDog = lPath + "Dog.jpg";

    Image imgDog = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(fileDog);
    JFrame theFrame = new JFrame("My First Appliction");
    theFrame.setSize(800, 600);
    p = new JPanel();
    p.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
    theFrame.getContentPane().add(p, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    JButton exitButton = new JButton("Exit");
    exitButton.addActionListener(new ExitControl());
    theFrame.getContentPane().add(exitButton, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    theFrame.setVisible(true);
    theFrame.setAlwaysOnTop(true);

    model = m;
    model.addObserver(this); // Register this class with the Model
    controller = new Controller(model); // Make the Controller using
the same Model
    }

  public void paintComponent(Graphics gr)
    {
    if (imgDog != null)
      {
      gr.drawImage(imgDog,0,0,48,48,this);
      }
    }

  public void update(Observable arg0, Object arg1)
    {
    if(arg1!=null)
      {
      int n;
      try
        {
        }
      catch(NumberFormatException e)
        {
        }
      }
    }
}