James

Cats have always fascinated me. Over the years I have been adopted by many, many felines, no two alike in colors, patterns or personalities. Some with pedigrees, others genetic mysteries but with a regal sense of who they were. They make wonderful models to paint and draw, perfect in every pose, sometimes exciting, pensive, and always mysterious!

This is a portrait of James, for this particular painting I worked from a photograph taken by the owner, Susan. It is a great photo because it shows a lot of the personality. I love the bow tie!! James is a very serious senior, quite sure he deserves only the best I'm sure. When I do a portrait I start with the eyes, if I can get the eyes correct the rest of the painting usually goes together quickly. I also try to use the same color of the eyes in the background. That helps make the eyes pop even more. Since the eyes are the heart of the painting, I always make the pupils larger and round. The painting is on a 6" x 6" x 1-1/2" thick gallery wrapped canvas. The thicker canvas lets me continue the painting on the sides. I like to do that because then the painting does not have to be framed, it can be hung on the wall or it will sit very securely on a flat surface.

I had a lot of fun painting James because he has such a beautiful face and I love his coloring!

 

This is the photo of James that I worked from for the portrait.

Here is the finished portrait of the very handsome James.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Once upon a time a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, (Chicago, Illinois). Okay maybe not that long ago and perhaps not that far away, just seems that way some days. There have been two constants in my life, my love of art and my love of animals. I always pictured myself as I aged to end up being known as a "crazy cat lady". Although I was fascinated by cats at a young age, they "followed" me home a lot, I didn't get my first cat until I was 17. My High School art teacher gave me a Siamese cat for graduation. Being a gift from my teacher made him acceptable to my mother and Bootsie became my soul companion. Over the years I have had many cats, all individuals, all beautiful, each one special, and all remembered with love. There are days when I probably couldn't tell you what I had for breakfast the day before, but I could tell you the name of every cat I have ever been owned by. At one point there were 63 cats and kittens in my care. Not to worry, I hadn't lost my mind, I had a Cattery. I bred and showed Himalayan cats, today they are known as color point Persians. I was honored to have bred and raised the top seal point male in the Midwest, Tmu-Ra's Nonesuch. Now you are probably wondering where am I going with this story, well, during this same time I also owned and operated "The Cat House Boutique". It was a traveling boutique, going to cat shows and selling different cat items including hand painted cat items, jewelry, wall hangings, jackets etc. I really loved painting all the different breeds of cats.  Time marched on and some things became less relevant, the Boutique being one. Not my cats, never the cats, always at least one graced my life.

Now to the point of this whole story, Albert has sort of demanded that I paint him. Of course who could say no to a face like that, not me, he knows where I sleep. I enjoy painting him so much that I started painting another cat, then another, and now have at least a dozen little cat portraits, from finished oil paintings to the pencil drawing on canvas.

Kalico Kitty

Albert

Bosco

All of the paintings are on 6" x 6" x 1.5" stretched canvas. I really like painting on the thicker canvases, I do continue the painting down the sides of the canvas so they don't have to be framed. The thicker canvases can stand alone on a shelf without an easel or hung on the wall.I find that cat's eyes are wonderful windows into their personality, so I tend to make them a little larger than they are in reality. It is fun to place them at different angles and falling off the canvas, it makes the negative space much more interesting. So you can't really call them exact portraits, more so personality portraits. Well whatever you want to call them, I am having a ball painting my little four footed friends!!

"Peaceful"

16 x 20, oil

I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for thirteen years, for the past ten years when driving into Seattle I would pass this farm. In the spring there would be little white lambs everywhere in the pasture. I would stop and watch their antics, running and jumping, so carefree in their youth. As the years passed the flock got smaller and smaller until today there are a dozen at most, no more lambs in the spring. No one lives in the house, but the remaining sheep can be seen wandering the property. The windows are gone in the house and there is a large hole in the roof in the back, but the house still stands, sturdy, stoically waiting for someone to come and care for it again. The farm buildings are amazing, all in great condition, no sagging roofs or missing boards, maybe a coat of paint. Every time I drove past the farm I would tell myself what a great painting it would make, and then drive on. The property is posted and sits on two well traveled roads so plein air would have been difficult. So using my handy dandy iphone camera, I started taking photos. I went back three times to get more photo's from different angles. This painting ended up being a combination from several views of the farm. In this painting the farm buildings and the land are my focal point. I want to do another painting of this farm with the house being more prominent. In front of the house is a large apple tree, this last fall it was loaded with bright red apples. The house still stands, the tree still produces, a tribute to the farmer who built the house and planted the tree.

This is the first landscape I have done in probably fifteen years. Back when I was painting them it was of the flat lands in the Midwest, so this was a bit of a challenge to get the rolling land. The trees are different in both shape and color, not as much red here. I like the way the pastures have a glowing gold color, fading almost to white the farther away we see. I really enjoyed doing a landscape and will do more!

It's not over till its over!

A few weeks ago I talked about finishing the painting of Albert and the cat pillows. It was signed,  and I was sure I was done with it. Like most of my paintings, I put it in a place to dry that was visible to me every time I walked to my bedroom. I was sure the painting was finished . . . positive in fact. So why did I have to stop and stare at it every time I walked past it, thinking about it as I lay in bed, going over it with a fine tooth comb in my mind. Well the proverbial light bulb finally went off last Monday, about 4 in the morning. I woke from a sound sleep into total awakeness . . . the gray cat!!! Finally an answer to the unease when I looked at the painting! The gray cat pillow stood out like a sore thumb in the painting, even though is was painted with paynes gray, the same color I had used in the other pillows. The difference was I had used titanium white to make the blue gray, the only place I had used it in the whole painting, it was jarring! Looking at it then, it was hard to understand why it took me so long to see the problem. A very large case of tunnel vision! It is easy to get so involved in the process of a painting that we only see the individual parts rather than the whole. I sat down and played with colors until the painting was more cohesive. The gray pillow is now a light tan color, similar to two other pillows in the painting and I added a pattern of red hearts. The color pattern of the painting is now much more pleasing.  It is sitting back in the walk by spot, now when I walk by I can smile and keep on walking by. This painting is now really done!

Cats for All!!

Sad to say I finished the "Cats" painting. Why sad? This painting has been so much fun to paint, from pencil sketch to finished painting! Playing with the patterns and colors was refreshing and thought provoking making the whole experience a pleasure.

The above is the 5th photo of the "cats" painting. Some of the detail has been put in, but more is needed. The orange and yellow stripped cat doesn't hold down the right side of the painting and needs to have the yellow stripes made dark and the grey and white  cat needs to be outlined. Of course Albert needs to have his whiskers put on!

Here is the finished piece, signed and everything! I love this painting and will have prints made up for sale. As you can see the cat in the lower right now has black stripes and the brown cat next to him is now sporting beige polka dots. Not so easy to see are Albert's white whiskers, but I guarantee that they are there. On to my next painting, which believe it or not is not a cat painting but a landscape! Not to worry though I will be back painting Albert or one of his friends soon. Speaking of cats....this last weekend my friend Rick and I were in Sumner, and found the greatest little shop called "The Collectible Cat". It is a cat lovers heaven, everything from jewelry to towels! There is even a resident cat named Reilly, a rehomed beauty who has found a loving forever home.

Where do ideas come from?

One of the hardest parts of being an artist, at least for me, is settling on subject matter to paint. That is not to say there is so little to paint but that there is so much to paint! Every time I visit the produce department at the grocery store I am inspired to paint some beautiful piece of fruit or vegetable. The colors are vibrant, the orderly display looks to be set up for a painting. I have amassed piles of photographs taken to show a specific flower or the way the sun hits the trees in the afternoon. Not enough hours in a day to paint all that needs to be painted! At the moment I am trying to limit my paintings to paintings of cats of my acquaintance, Albert being my primary model. He is quite good at posing in unusual "Albertesk" situations. So recently when I ran across a print I had made quite a few years ago of a collection of cat pillows I immediately thought of putting Albert in amongst the pillows.

Most of my print making was of the intaglio variety, this was a fun way of making a plate to print from. A piece of pantyhose is taped over thick cardboard of the size the prints are to be. The cardboard needs to be waterproofed first with one or two coats of decoupage glue. Once the pantyhose is in place more coats of the glue are painted on where the print is to be white. The more coats of glue the lighter the area will be. Once there enough coats of glue, the plate is ready to be inked, which is applied with a piece of cardboard, then the plate is wiped with a soft cloth to take the ink off the lighter areas. The plate is then placed on an intaglio press, a sheet of damp paper applied on top then the press blanket. Run it through the press and pull the print! The only draw back to this type of plate is that you can only pull a small amount of prints before it looses its crispness of line.

When I start a painting, watercolor or oil, I do a very comprehensive drawing of my composition. I have found that this saves me a lot of time later in fixing any errors that come up with composition. This is the canvas with the drawing on it of Albert and the pillows. As you can see I have changed the arrangement and size of some of the pillows. This was going to be a very fun painting to do!!

The first of the color has been added to the painting. I started with the yellow cats in the back. Usually working from the objects in back to the front helps me work out the color scheme as I work on the painting. Objects that are further back in a composition need to have a softer outline. Sharper lines bring objects to the front and have the effect of flattening the painting.This is also the time when I work out my background color. On this painting I am using a combination of the paynes gray, cad orange, cad yellow light and permanent rose with a touch of buff titanium, all the colors that I have used on the pillows. These colors will be repeated throughout the rest of the painting with the addition of titanium white.

Albert is now finished except for his whiskers and the heart on his collar.  This painting is being done on a gallery wrapped canvas, sixteen inches square by 1-1/2" thick. I really do like painting on the thicker canvas because I then have the fun of continuing the painting along the sides. I will be sure to post a photo showing the sides. I think that this is probably one of the most enjoyable paintings I have done!

Cats, cats and more cats!

Cat 'n Quilt

You can probably tell I love cats, they are my favorite subjects to paint. Over the years I have been owned by many cats, big cats, little cats, every color of the rainbow and never any two with even similar personalities. Just like people they are all different, but they have all left indelible prints on my life and heart. I had a grey cat named DC for over 18 years, when he passed away I told everyone that I wasn't going to get another cat, it is just too heartbreaking when they go. Well my friend Liz wasn't going to let that happen, she came over and made me get in her car and we went to her vets that had just gotten a litter of kittens that had been left on the side of the road. There were 8 kittens in the litter about 2 weeks old and no two colors alike. I noticed one little grey kitten all rolled up in a ball and put my hand in the cage to reach for it. I was moving my hand slowly so not to scare the other kittens, one little orange kitten put his paws on my fingers then pulled himself into the palm of my hand, curled up and went to sleep. I was lost, he had picked me, and I was his person. It was another 8 weeks before I could bring him home, and he had almost doubled in size, he fit in my  whole hand. He came in and took over the house, no fear of Elvis (resident dog), he was home and he knew it. You have seen a few paintings of him and heard his stories, his name is Albert and he is quite the character and loves all the attention he gets from his modeling jobs.

This painting of Albert is him laying on an old quilt that he loves. It was a gift to me from my sister many years ago, his orange color on the blue and green quilt is spectacular! He is a great model! I do my paintings on gallery stretched canvas, that means that the canvas is attached to the back of the stretchers, not on the sides. This gives me the opportunity to paint on the sides of the canvas and for the painting to be displayed without a frame. The canvas is thicker than normal too, most stretched canvases are 3/4" while these are 1-1/2" thick. It makes a nice statement on a wall and can stand alone on a book shelf or table.  When I do a painting I like to work from the real item. That can be a little difficult when trying to paint a live animal, so I do pencil sketches and take photos with my phone of him in different positions. I now have enough sketches of him for many more paintings!! When I am doing still life paintings I work directly on the canvas with the items in front of me in a set up. It gives a real freshness to the composition and color. So much more control of light too. When I am painting Albert I have to be very careful with the lighting, too much light and the color of his coat fades and the bars are totally lost. The other reason to keep the lighting down is the eyes, when cats are in bright light the pupil in the eye closes up to a tiny dot, I like the lower light because the pupil is larger and rounder, giving the cat a much softer look. It the movie "Puss and Boots", when Puss wants to be lovable they give him huge round pupils in the eyes and everyone becomes hypnotized by the cute little kitty. Someone really understood cats that worked on that movie, which by the way I loved!!