Black cat with yellow background

Somehow, over the years, I've become more realistic in my artwork (emphasis on more). Perhaps it is the nature of commissions.  After all, the buyer wants something that LOOKS like his beloved animal.

Howeverr, there are times when I don't want the black cat to look like the black cat in the photo.  The angles or the background somehow say exaggerate or distort this animal.  I end up with a painting for sale and start again on the commission, but that first paiting has something that speaks to me loudly.

I think I needed to have some fun when I started painting this cat.  I added bright circus colors and played with the tail.

Unlike most of my paintings by the time they make it to this blog, this painting is for sale. Email me for details or visit my Etsy site. 

Ear blanket

Yes, I could crop this picture to better reflect what you see if you buy the card, but I actually like the edges.

This little kitty uses his friend's ear as his security blanket.
 
For me, this painting is about security and friendship.  How nice to be such good friends that you know you'll be protected. That you can snuggle in to a warm place even in an open field. 

We all want that safe place. Some of us find numerous safe places in expected and unexpected locations.  And, some of us never find it.

A card based upon this painting is available at Ideal Pet Stop and at my Etsy store. 

Cat as a hat

Thanks to Dr. Seuss, you've heard of the cat in the hat, but you may never have heard or seen a cat AS a hat. 

 

This acrylic and marker painting shows that scenario -- an orange tabby lying across a golden dog's forehead.  The dog doesn't even look irritated!  You know who rules this household.

 

In all my cat-caring adventures, I have never had the privilege of sharing my abode with an orange kitty! Nor with sibling kitties. I digress though.  This blog is supposed to be about paintings and my meanderings about them. 

 

Indirectly, this painting is about love and how we accommadate those we live with.  In a perfect world, we accommodate each other.  

 

This design is available as a card from Ideal Pet Stop in Seattle and through my Etsy shop.   

 



Cats on stripes

Well, perhaps this should have had hearts in the background!  Thanks to the wonders of technology, I just may change it next year!

I am playing with the ideas of stripes (or polka dots) for my next postcard order... I am down to the last 50 or so and since I have committed to going down to Olympia for Pet Connections magazine 6th annual Easter egg hunt, I need to quit talking about postcards, design them, and order them. 

That said, I did use technology for this little card.  I drew a cat, used my light box to reverse it, painted it, scanned it, and then placed it on the stripes which I created in Photoshop.  This is the most digitally enhanced creation I have ever done!   Still, it could be easy to change the background. 

This card is available from Ideal Pet Stop in Seattle and through my Etsy shop. 

Nose kisses, aka more interspecies love

This is another Valentine's card that is available online and at Ideal Pet Store in Seattle.  You can also email me if you are interested!  My contact information is available on the blog and on my web site at www.animalfriendsportraits.com.

 

I love golden retrievers. They are so happy!  And, my two black kitties are the most gregarious and dog loving of my bunch, so it was easy to picture a golden with a black kitty.

 

 This card is available from Ideal Pet Stop in Seattle and through my Etsy shop. 

 

 

Interspecies love

Are you ready for Valentine's day?  I was trying to have cards done  by January 15th but I made it last week!  These cards are available at Ideal Pet Stop and soon on Etsy. ( I really do need my own camera: my husband and I have been sharing.)

 

My inspiration are my own animals, although I do not have a white cat or a yellow dog.  Instead, my orange dog loves her black cat! 

 

I am using this as a wedding card to celebrate my friends' wedding.

 

This card is available from Ideal Pet Stop in Seattle and through my Etsy shop.

Barb's new cat

I am not entirely sure this is done. Perhaps the eye on the left is a bit too outlined.  I will paint today and try to remove the starkness from the eye.

I need to get this in the mail, though. Tomorrow, I hope.

Now, back to dog commissions!  Happy day!



Peewee

This is Peewee, my sister's cat. I don't often like how my sister names her cats (we had kegger and miller growing up) or how she treats her cats (declaws them but doesn't spay them). Somehow, though, this cat, from a fuzzy out-of-focus film camera caught my eye. 

I'll be sending this as a holiday present.  Being the literal minded, realistic art sort of person that my sister is, she may not even think this looks like Peewee. 

What's that saying?  You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your relatives.  

Scarves

This is another of my winter cards. While others may think birds in snow covered trees represent winter to them, to me, it's sweaters on dogs.  But have you ever seen a scarf on a dog?

 

My dog, Penny. just got a new sweater that she loves . While I got it at Ideal Pet Stop, it's a Chilly Dog Sweater.  And they sell scarves too!  But I have never seen a scarf on a dog -- or a cat.

 

Here is my attempt to show scarves on cats and dogs.  I originally thought I'd dress the animals in Washington university scarves.  And the colors are nominally a homage.  I just needed to add more pattern that the scarves I saw on the football fans that I crowded next to while they were riding the light rail home. 

 

This design is available as a card both individually and as a set at my Etsy store. Soon it will be available as a 7 x 7 print, too.  I must get mats!

 

 



Skating with dogs

Once in a while, I am not sure how well I execute a certain idea. I first thought I'd do a card with couple's figure skaters, perhaps a dog lifting a cat in one of those complicated poses.  But, with the anthropomorphism of the skaters, I got stuck.  So I simplified the skating (and the costumes) and put three figures on the page in a simple triangle placement.

I was happy enough with the design to make it into cards, just like I did with the other holiday cards labeled on my blog.  I thought this design was the least successful, but it was the first card sold.

You just never know... 

Crazy Cat Santa

 Who knew Santa was a cat lover? With this many cats, he could even be considered Crazy Cat Santa.  Now, we know why his clothes are so furry! 

Living with Santa on North Pole, these cats are all a bit wary of new faces. They will all run if you get too close.

For this, and the last design I posted, my inspiration was "Santa Claws." I knew I had to paint Santa with cats.  I tried two different poses, both based upon my memories, and then imagining where cats would sit on Santa.  These cats like Santa's beard. And, one likes his head.

I do have a cat who sleeps on my head, but I don't have a cat who jumps on my head when I am awake.  But, then, I don't wear a hat too often. 

Santa and three cats!

I am cheating.  I have tried for the past three weeks to participate in a creative work called "Illustration Friday" where a theme is selected and the participating artists create their interpretations of the theme.

 

The theme for Illustration Friday is "Whiskers" and this painting has plenty.  This is one of the designs I finished to create cards out of for the holiday season so it is not made expressly for Illustration Friday. But close counts. 

 

What's with the nose?  I love interesting noses, whether they are on cats, dogs, next door neighbors, or Santas.  Now that I look at this, I see that Santa's nose looks a bit like my husband's. But, don't tell him I said that!

 

One of my friends called this my rocking Santa, but I don't think he's rocking.  I think he's thinking!

Cat in Tree

Hello. Sorry for the absence.  I bought a new printer that didn't have scanning capabilities and failed to recognize it before I gave the printer away.  I finally bought a freestanding scanner and now I've got lots to add to my blog.

 

I've spent the last few days creating holiday designs to make into cards for sale at Ideal Pet Stop and the new Munsey and Bayle in Seattle.  I also hope to create an Etsy store this week (Tips, anyone) where I could sell to more than just Seattle. 

 

This is just one of the card designs.  I also used it as part of a weekly challenge I have with an artist/illustrator friend of mine. We've committed to have illustrations done every week to show one another. 

 

I am posting this design first, not because I think it is the best, but because I also plan on showing it  as part of Illustration Friday, where a new topic is chosen each week and participants show illustrations related to that theme.  This week's theme is tree.  I think this covers it!

For Jillian

Jillian bid on a custom pet portrait offered at a Purrfect Pals fundraiser where she was a lab tech.  She wrote me a heartfelt letter about her cat, who had been an indoor/outdoor cat who had caught FIV, and then died, years later.

 

This cat was hard for me to finish because I wanted to capture the torn ears, the inside/outside life, and of course his personality. 

 

One of my cats was dying too while I was painting this and Jillian's story hit home. 

 

Indoor/outdoor cats don't live as long as indoor cats and are more succeptable to illnesses. 

Becket, for Charlie

I had my husband scan this painting, thinking it was done, but I think I want to add more green to the eyes, more whiskers in the ears, and more shadow around the nose.

That's what scanning sometimes does, highlight the imperfections.

But, this blog is not meant to be a meditation on how I fail as an artist, it's meant to provide a little background into inspiration, and to give you, the reader, a sense of my connection with the animal. I may not know the animal personally, but I know what his person tells me.

Becket was one of my husband's cats. He showed up at the front door one day, greeting my husband, who had his arms full of groceries.  When my husband turned the handle of the door, Becket was the first one in.  Clearly, he had found his home.

Of course, we took him to the vet, who neutered him and told us he was a healthy adolescent boy. He was very affectionate; he was one of those boy cats who knew how to cuddle. He was a delight.    But, he soon got into a territorial war with BeetleCat, the cow cat that my husband had rescued as a kitten. They started wars as to who could mark the most territory, and my husband went through many gallons of enzyme cleaners.  Becket needed to find a new home, though, after he sprayed my husband's bare legs. Ugh. 

Thankfully, the next door neighbor loved him just as much; in his house, he only peed in the bathtub.  He lived happily with Charlie for about 13 years and died  on his front porch.  My husband asked me to paint a memorial to give to Charlie, who still talks about Becket.

Becket, by the way, is a short length of rope used for securing spars,  and other nautical devices. A becket has an eye at one end and a thick knot or a toggle at the other.

I'll post the finished piece, too. 

Winken

Winken was painted as a Christmas present for a woman who lives here in the Rainier Valley. Winken is not her cat, but her mother's deceased cat.

We were unable to get a picture of Winken with his eyes open, so we punted. Jen agreed that these look pretty close.

The background is the color of Winken's favorite chair.

I especially love his jowls.

Valentine cards

These are two cards that I recently delivered to Ideal Pet Shop for Valentine's day--a little break from pet portraits. My next portrait is a lovely black cat. I am looking forward to it.

I'll post the most recent pet portraits next,

The Chosen

See previous post. This is the painting that the customer chose after seeing two paintings I did of one of her mother's cats. Very aristocratic kitty, but doesn't necessarily look like the sweetest girl ever. (And I see I need to clean my scanner.) It was fun painting the tag, too. Part of me wanted to get some silver foil to put on the collar, but I refrained. This is Emily. My friend Diane's mother's cat. Diane owns KittyStar Services. If you live in north Seattle and need a cat sitter, I highly recommend her. She is ultra reliable, resourceful, and great with the kitties.

Emily on square canvas

Every so often, I create two paintings of one commission. Sometimes I want to experiment with the color. Sometimes I want to experiment with size. Sometimes, I just want to. It usually takes me as much time to paint two as to paint one, even when I'm playing with color. Something about concentrating on the paintings and feeling the way the face is structured makes it quick. I created two paintings of this cat, Emily. This cat has a sweet expression, but I should have made it a little smaller because the cat is actually one of those longer faced, aristocratic looing cats. It needed either a bigger painting or a smaller rendition on the canvas. I like her eyes and her collar. And her slightly undefined features. Compare this one to the one I post next and let me know which one you like.

Kali

Remember when I said that a friend of mine's mom helped me bake for a fundraiser I was having? And that I would paint her cats? The first one I finished was Buck, and you heard about what a character he was.

I don't know much about Kali, except she is sweet and shy. I think she wants to trust you, but. may never quite do so.

Kali's mom's son in law named Kali for the Hindu god of destruction, or that was his interpretation of the goddess. But, my quick research shows that that is a superficial interpretation. She is the goddess of energy and change and has many guises.

Perhaps this Kali is really named Bhadra Kali, who is gentle. Bhadra in Sanskrit means blessed, auspicious; fair, beautiful; good; fortunate, prosperous. She is indeed fortunate to have landed in Fern's household!