"Squeaker"

Last January on a business trip to St. Louis, I had the misfortune of getting very ill on the morning I was to fly home. An angel by the name of Kerry, whom I had met less than 72 hours earlier, became my salvation.

At first, she just offered to wait with me for the shuttle to the airport. When it became obvious that I was in no condition to fly, she got me checked back into a room, made sure I had emergency contacts and changed my airline reservations (on her credit card).

When I was once again able to think like a normal human being, I made sure she was reimbursed and heartily thanked for her kindness. But under the circumstances, I wanted to do more. So I asked her if I could paint something for her. She gave me two options, a landscape and this mountain lion, both involve precious memories for her.

Kerry, if you feel that this accurately represents "Squeaker", once it dries, I will pack it up and send it your way. Bless you for being the kind of person who steps up to help someone in need.

The King of Cats

When I mentioned the King of Cats, you probably thought of a lion or a tiger. Spooky, named because we adopted him in October and he is a Halloween cat, is the most regal cat in our household. He knows his place in the universe, and that is ruler of all that he can see. He shows it in his every move. This pose is typical...look at me, aren't I just the cat's meow?

When the sun shines on his coat, you can see the expresso coffee color that is the underside of his fur.

This is a large painting, 18"x24", practically life size. Spooky is a good sized cat, with very large claws. He really is the King of Cats!

On a side note, the window on this painting is really straight, blame me for doing a lousy job of cropping the photo.

George's cat

I am still playing with acrylic paints, and apparently, still painting cats! The colors in the photo are not as good as the actual colors of the painting, and I can't rephotograph it as it's already on it's way to the cat's owners.

Putting a pattern in the fabric was easier than I thought it was going to be, and painting all those little round beads turned out to be a lot of fun. If you look closely at the top of the painting you can see that the beads are part of the Christmas tree, with just one light and the tips of a couple of branches showing.

I am grateful to my friends who post their wonderful photos on their Facebook pages and then give me permission to paint them when I ask. For their generosity, they always get first dibs on whatever I do. Of course, there is always the fear that someone will decide that you didn't capture the essence their beloved pet, but I've been very fortunate in that so far, that's only happened once.

The next painting I have planned is of two dogs. The scale will be much larger, I'm thinking 16"x20", whereas the last three cat paintings have been 9"x12". I am also going back to oils on this one. It's going to be a holiday gift, so I need to get started soon.

On another note, my youngest cat has a new game - she loves playing with bubbles. We spend ten minutes once a day with me blowing bubbles and her standing on her hind legs batting at them. This has made me rethink the painting I just finished of her, I think I might add some bubbles. What do you think? Let me know, I'd love to hear from you.

Snuggles, the Gentleman Cat

I finally completed a painting of Snuggles where he doesn't look like he's angry or mad. I think it's because his eyes tend to bug out just a bit. He has the best personality, he's sweet and gentle, and I can't remember the last time he used his claws on a human being, unlike our other two. Even if you are doing something he doesn't like, he never scratches.


He is a beautiful long haired tuxedo cat with a magnificent tail that a skunk would be proud to own.


This was the first painting I tried with my new acrylics (even though it's not the first one posted on the blog). I particularly liked the way the Paynes Grey somehow managed to do it's own shading. I did his entire black coat with the grey, and it streaked the lighter shades pretty much all on it's own, I only had to add a few highlights when I was done.


I added the butterfly a bit later when I decided he needed to be looking at something. I always say that I think he's near sighted as sometimes he seems to not be as confident as the other two when he has to jump from point to point. He thinks about it a lot before he makes the jump, he's really quite tentative. So it made sense for the butterfly to be really close and it shows his gentleness. Although in real life, it wouldn't stand a chance!

Playing with Acrylics

I have been experimenting with acrylic paint for the past week. My subject matter has been cats. The reason for the switch (and it's not permanent) is that I find myself 'making mud' when I overwork the oils and wanted to see if I would be happier with acrylics given their faster drying time.

I have now painted three paintings and the answer is a resounding NO. They set up way to fast and I have a real hard time blending the colors when I want to. So, overall, I'll probably stick with oils for the most part. The acrylics have their place, for instance, today when I wanted to paint on the three season porch. I wasn't worried about making a mess, I just sat in my chair and painted.

The painting above is of Dessie (short for Destiny) when she was just four weeks old. I found her in the middle of a busy intersection one morning last October where someone had thrown her away. She was so small that she didn't really walk very well, and she was so lucky that no one hit her. Adding her to our household was a no-brainer. This was my second painting using acrylics.

In the next couple of days, I'll share the other two cat paintings I have completed this week.