Happy cats and cats galore



Mr. Smokey T. Cat

I love this weather!  The rain and gray skies make me miss Amsterdam even more. 

Works in progress and works completed -
I finished the changes to the painting of my sister's cat.. She had requested that his whiskers be extended and that they droop down farther.

So, now he looks even more sour, if that is at all possible. : )
  

Miss Penny's portrait is in progress.  We are discussing some details and contemplating if the hand-painted frame should also be included.

In the meantime, I'm gathering some pet portrait examples to add to my Etsy shop for custom portrait requests!! Please check back with my Etsy shop as they will be up within the week. 

You'll be able to request custom portraits of your favorite pets! And, as always, please feel free to use the Alchemy feature in my Etsy shop to request any other custom art.

I've also been working on these other paintings to celebrate Día de los Muertos~! 

Thanks to a fellow Etsyian for including me in another treasury, this one for Happy Cats.  I was delighted to see so much art that made me smile, and so glad that I was included.  http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cbb7f83dad56d910f4ed3fa/happy-cats

And last, but certainly not least - some great art at Copro Nason Gallery in Santa Monica:  Ausgang's wonderfully bizarre and mesmerizing cats, Nouar's very tasty and gleefully disturbing art, and an awesome collection of artists in the Bon A Petit group exhibition.  Amazing art and artists!!

http://copronason.com/

Mr. Smokey T. Cat - A work in progress

I'm working on a painting of my sister's cat, Smokey.

Smokey has a very sour expression.  He has always been an odd cat, and I don't mean that in a mean way.  He just reminds me of an old man with a very cantankerous personality.  One very unsettling thing that he does is he stands up on his hind legs and opens doors..   Imagine you're visiting, say, at your sister's house for example.. Just sitting there on the couch minding your own business, and a door opens behind you.  There is no one that you can see at said door,  but then you see a tall black cat, standing upright on his legs, staring at you from the crevice of the door opening.

Smokey the cat.  Enough said.

Small things and side notes

Frank is a french bulldog that I never met.  His pictures graced my daughter's phone, as he is the pet of one of her friends.  It was love at first sight when I saw the pictures of Frankie and  I just had to paint him.  I only had time to paint something small, about 2"x3", before my daughter's friend moved  away to San Francisco.  I'm very happy that this little painting now resides with Frank in his new home.  Even though I have never met him, I do miss him.

He did come to visit our home one day.  I am told that  our cat Penny, was not pleased and had a severe lapse in manners; hissing, arching her back, and puffing up like a blowfish...  Frank, on the other hand, was a perfect gentleman.  

Side notes:  I'm still working on paintings for the San Diego Undead Show.  The one I'm working on now takes place somewhere that looks quite similar to "the happiest place on earth", but of course it is not that place.   I will post pictures when I am finished.  I also will post a picture of the zombie girl I was working on first. You can see her eyes in the previous post.  I think she needs eyedrops.  I still want to add some blood spatter, but all in all I think I'm just about done.  I've dubbed that one, "I have a coupon".

For Comic-Con International - I procrastinated much too long on sending in the forms.  I finally was able to send them today.  I hope that I can still get a spot for the art show.  I'm planning to do more paintings on recycled print, only larger in size.  The "Frank" painting is painted on recycled print collage.  Some other examples of the recycled print paintings are on my etsy shop.

 If I get in the show or not, I still have the larger recycled print paintings inside my mind now.. and my brain is getting kind of crowded. They're now part of the art to get out of my brain!

The twitching in my thumb and other side trackings

Sometimes it seems like everything gets side tracked. A big bunch of things that clump together into one time blob that won't let you pass.

For me, one of these things is my twitching right thumb. It's been twitching for over a week now, such a long time that its driving me nuts! As it dances along the space bar, jiggling and wiggling to it's own music, I can only hope that it'll stop or, that somehow I'll be able to ignore it, completely. . You are not there, thumb. I do not feel you at all. You are not part of my hand and you will stop with the twitching, damn it. I may attempt painting with my left hand, again. As a kid I was a lefty. But during that era it was common practice to correct this, or "right" the problem. So now I'm mostly right handed. I think my thumb is rebelling.

I haven't been able to paint with this - thumb wiggling problem. If I can find one of my ace bandages my plan is to trap the damn thumb so it won't move, then I might be able to paint.

Besides misplacing the bandage, I've also misplaced my camera. I say "misplaced" in the hopes that it will magically appear somewhere. That magical place where things go when you can't find them. Then they come back when they're good and ready. In the meantime, I've been going through my stuff trying to not look for it so it will not hide from me anymore. This is my new camera, the replacement camera that I got after the last one went through the laundry. When I do find it, I will be able to take pictures of the newer paintings I had finished before my thumb became possessed and upload them to my websites.

On the bright side, my thumb twitch forced me to do other things that I did not want to do. Like deciding to finally order cable service after not having T.V. for a year, and calling FedEx customer service to ask why my 2nd day delivery package will be delivered to me in 7 days. Little tasks like these move up in importance when I can't paint. After 4 hours online in my mission to get cable service, chatting online with 2 different customer service people, I'm finally told via automated message at checkout that "your order could not be processed online. Please call customer service at blah blah blah.. Upon calling customer service, the message is "we are sorry, our office is closed, please try again." I'm going to searching for my ace bandage.

Now that I have found my bandage, I've trapped my thumb into submission, it is now only semi-possessed. I start to get up to go paint and..

Our poor kitty, Penny, who just got spayed on Thursday has settled on my right arm and my lap, her sad little stitched tummy, and her sweet little head surrounded by the plastic elizabethean collar that she detests so much. asleep and purring. I will not be getting up to paint anytime soon. I'll just finish typing this with my left hand.