Mitzi

Kathleen is our neighbour, and although she has a dog now, years ago she had this beautiful cat, Mitzi. She is a fantastic gardener, and must miss the pond that she had at her previous home. This painting is a tribute to Mitzi, and to that lovely garden hideaway in Vancouver.

Colorful Kitten

This kitten went through some interesting stages before completion. I chose the image from a royalty-free photo image site online as I needed a subject to demonstrate my painting ability at an SPCA fund raising event. For some time now, I've been using an under painting technique similar to that used by oil painters, called glazing. I could simply paint this brown and grey kitten brown and grey, but the fur becomes so much richer if I start with other colors first, such as in this case, blues, mauves and pinks. I got some comments from curious onlookers who must have assumed that I had a pretty unique take on reality! In hindsight, I ought to have taken some pictures of the earlier stages to show how very differently this painting started out. 
And then there was that ear, the larger one in the foreground; it seems that every painting teaches me something. Working in a public setting, I was bound to get distracted, and so I did when using a particularly staining green background pigment. Later I saw that the green had seeped into the ear area, and was there forever. This wasn't and area where colorful glazing was going to work.

Lesson 1. Don't use staining pigments when you might get distracted!

I was able to cover the problem with a bleedproof white gouache product, sort of like white-out for artists. I would only use this in emergencies, and don't use it very often, but how great to have it on hand for times like this. I was able to paint over it, and now I can't even tell where the trouble area was.

Lesson 2. Watercolor mistakes CAN be corrected!

Paint and learn, paint and learn...............

My Sweet Pie

Of all the pets that I have painted, for nearly 15 years, Friskey was my favorite special friend. I am surprised that it took me this long to finally paint her. She was a close companion especially in that we shared a great love of books, she being an enthusiastic book sitter. This made reading rather awkward, but we did spend a lot of time together in that old wing back chair. She could be counted on to find the best sun beam, and had the most soothing maternal purr. Her son, the orange tabby Orville, has made his way into several of my paintings, including Journeys Through Bookland, and Catnap in China. Doing this painting brought back a lot of memories, and I do miss my old friend, my Sweet Pie.

Not So Far Away

I just love this pose of JB, comfortably leaning on his elbow(?) not unlike some people I know. If I had accidentally called him JR (as in JR Ewing), I wouldn't have been too far wrong. And yes, there's a story. There's always a story.

One day a while back, I got a nice email from Corinne, someone I didn't know. It seems she had travelled to Vancouver from her home near Dallas Texas sometime last fall. There she met someone that I also didn't know who had seen my paintings in a gallery in Ontario late last summer. Somehow pet portraiture came up in their conversation, and I was mentioned. Once home, Corinne emailed me, asking if I would paint a commerative portrait of her and husband Dave's late orange tabby, JB.

So from Ontario to Vancouver to Texas to Ontario and finally a painting delivered to Texas. Is is just me, or is the world getting smaller?

Sushi

This commission was done for Sonya, my supervisor at work, as a Christmas gift for her neighbour Sheila who owned Sushi. One of the challenges of this painting was to realistically depict the depth and intensity of the very dark fur, as well as capturing the detail of the light fur without it looking washed out.

Catnap In China

Moments like this don't come along very often. It's one thing to arrange teacups, but quite another to pose a cat. So when I chanced upon Orville as he is seen here, I had to find the camera fast.
My goal in this painting was to capture the glow of the sunbeam, as well as the warmth of the areas in shadow.

Journeys Through Bookland

I have been collecting china tea cups on and off for years, planning to do more still life compositions similar to the first painting that I did over thirteen years ago. Tea cups and books. When I found the old children's book "Journeys Through Bookland", (printed in 1922) in a thrift store, I had the inspiration I needed.

This is a personal piece for me, representing some of my favorite simple pleasures. A pot of tea, something historical to read, a winter sunbeam and a sleepy cat. The title of the book is important as well, since nearly every day for me is a journey through book land; I work at two libraries.

Practically speaking, this was probably the most detailed piece I have ever done, taking many hours to complete. Wicker again! What was I thinking?! It measures 16" x 30", which for me is large.

And thank you Orville (the cat) for holding your pose while I arranged the pieces.

The Workshop

I had been asked to give a one day instructional workshop to members of the Brant Visual Artists' Guild to be held in St George. There would be between 15 and 20 intermediate level adult watercolour students in attendance, all of them strangers. Although challenged by the offer, as this would be my first workshop, I felt confident that I could do it since I have always liked to teach.

The topic would be pet portraiture. I broke down the steps taken to paint the Zephyr portrait (shown in the previous post) and would use this painting as my main teaching example. But a couple of days before the event, it occurred to me that some students might prefer to paint a cat instead of a dog. I quickly decided to add a kitten photo from a royalty free website. This was fortunate, since the kitten was the preferred choice of many. I have noticed that artists and cats (and avid readers) often go together.

I have heard that the definition of an expert is a person in the room that knows more about a subject than anyone else. Here I was showing others what I had learned, and being treated as an expert on the topic............ Who, me?!......... Perhaps I had more to offer on that topic than the others, but 'expert' is a relative concept. So often I hear teachers say that they learn so much from their students, and it is true. We all learn from each other, and there is still so much to learn. I was just showing what I had acquired up to this point on my artistic journey.

And it was a thrill.

Thanks Pam, and members of the BVAG.

Katie and Raffles

After the studio tour, I slipped once again into a season without painting. First came the simultaneous training at two new part time jobs, then an illness, surgery and slow recovery. My dad suggested I paint while convalescing, but I just wasn't up for it. Although not physically demanding, painting takes mental energy, something like a chess game. Watching old movies was more my speed. Finally, in the fall, after a couple of trips away, I was ready for a fresh start.

A co-worker had seen my blog, and asked me to paint her aunt's two cats. This would be my first double portrait. Intended as a gift for Christmas, I had plenty of time to work on it, which was great because my time now had become so limited.

Katie, the tortoise shell, and the "marmalade" Raffles, are not friendly towards each other. Their posing together was not likely to happen, and to complicate it further, Robyn had to slip the reference photos to me without detection from her aunt, this being a surprise gift. It was a new challenge for me to coordinate the scale of the two images, crop and arrange the subjects into a unified piece.

I was struck by how similar these two cats were with our own, Friskey and Orville, shown in the photo.

Sambuca

When Mark John and Nanette got Sambuca as a kitten, they had no idea how large she would become. Long and lean, she is one of the largest short hair cats their vet has ever seen. Although rather shy, she is no stranger to the comforts of a cozy bed. With this painting, it was important to capture the many colours reflected in her jet black fur: blue, red, purple and green.

Madison

A "doorstep baby", Madison and her littermates were found at the door of Woodstock's Wellington Animal Hospital when they were only two weeks old. The dedicated veterinary staff worked around the clock to keep these vulnerable kittens alive. Eventually Madison made her way to Barb, where she joined two other cats to become one of the "girls". Madison's rather aloof stare is emphasized by her beautiful natural eye liner markings.

This was my first commission, and the challenge here was to work with a very small portion of a snapshot. While not an easy task, I learned that it could be done.

The Orange Tabby

I was on a roll by this time, having painted four portraits in as many days. After the weekend, since there was still no computer, I carried right on. On this second week, I gave myself the challenge of one portrait per twenty four hours.

This was a particularily beautiful cat, and like so many cats, he looks as though he knows it.

A Cat in the Spotlight

I was having lots of fun with the dogs, but I was ready for a cat. For most of my life I have owned one cat or another. For my first 18 years there was Snookey, and later Lucy, Amy, Bobbie, Bruno, Heidi, Clara and Bess. Some remained for years, and were special friends, others were mothers and kittens fostered through the SPCA. Most were named, but some passed through nameless. Currently there is Orville, as seen in an earlier post, and his mother Friskey, my special favorite.

The Knave of Hearts

When Ian stayed with us in May while recovering from knee surgery, he brought along the now grown kitten, George Michael. I had painted him in casein during the Christmas holidays as seen in an earlier post. On this visit he was gradually allowed to discover the great outdoors. So making up for lost time spent as an indoor cat, he spent as much of his time as possible amongst the foliage and flowers that became his jungle. He stalked birds, climed trees and ran the length of the yard for the sheer freedom of it. He even squeezed through the fence a few times to explore the uncharted reaches of suburbia. After a while we got used to his comings and goings.

It came as a suprise, then, while taking pictures of my bleeding hearts for yet another floral painting, that Georgie's little face would appear in one of the photos. He really is just as impudent as he looks. Of the paintings that I have done, this is probably my favorite.

It marked, as well, a turning point for me. It would be the last painting of flowers that I would do for some time. That inquisitive little face lead me in a new direction.