New Cat Art

I've just finished two cat paintings: one is a commissioned portrait, the other is part of a series of new works that I'll hang in the Auburn Old Town Gallery in May.

This is Devlin, a Burmese and the third pet portrait completed for a client who's commissioned me to do portraits of her many pets. Quincy the Newfoundland and Eamonn the Great Dane's portraits are already finished. Next up will be an Irish Wolfhound and then there are some more cats.


Devlin, 6" x 7", Watercolor on Yupo

The dog portraits are realistic, but we decided to go the "Paintings with Petzazz" route for her cat portraits. That would explain why Devlin is various shades of purple and blue with a grass green background - I always paint the Petzazz portraits in a vibrant, limited palette on Yupo paper.



The second painting is of a cat from FieldHaven Feline Rescue - a wonderful local cat rescue and adoption facility. The reference photo was provided by Joy Smith, the director. I can always count on her for great photos of the kitties at FieldHaven.

I used ink, watercolor and color pencil on watercolor Art Board for this piece.


"The Eyes Have It", 5" x 5", Mixed Media on ArtBoard



Here's a video showing my steps to create this painting:


This painting along with this pig and four other new ones will be on display at the Auburn Old Town Gallery in May. You can find this image on items in my Zazzle shop.

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"This Little Piggy"

This 5" x 5" pink porcine painting is another one on the Art Board surface. I'm doing a series of new critter art that I'll debut at the Auburn Old Town Gallery in May. Starting in April, three Gallery artists will be featured each month. I'm one of those featured in May. Part of the deal is that we have to put up some new art, not an entire display of new art, just "some" new art. When I agreed to being featured in May, I quickly realized that using the ArtBoards for new works would be the best way to go. They're something new in my bag of tricks and they aren't as time consuming as some of my other techniques. Plus, I think they're really fun (to do and to look at)!
You can find this image on items in my Zazzle shop.


As you can see, I took the colors in a brighter direction than the real thing, as I've done with other paintings on this surface (Sydney, Sammy, Bailey & goats). And in this case, I cleaned up the pig quite a bit - I really didn't want to have a painting of a grimy, snotty-nosed pig.

In addition to the pig, I'll have a pug, toad, goat, rabbit and cat ready for the Gallery in May.


This is the cat in progress. I still have some work to do, but so far, I've used white color pencil (Prismacolor Verithin) for the whiskers, watercolor for the background and eyes and a black Micron pen for the dark areas. I drew the whiskers before I painted the background - the pencil resists the paint and I was able to do smooth washes without having to paint around the whiskers. These whiskers are fairly thin, so I decided to go that route instead of trying to get thin, smooth lines with masking fluid. You can't see it, but the white whiskers extend up into the cat's face. The reference photo I'm using for this painting is courtesy of Joy Smith of FieldHaven Feline Rescue.

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Good Canine Citizens

A couple of times a year, Roseville Dog Owners' Group (RDOG) holds a "Canine Good Citizen® (CGC)" Clinic. This clinic features a local dog trainer who helps dogs and their owners practice and prepare for the CGC test (held at a later date). You can click here to see what the test entails, but basically, it determines if a dog can handle 10 different situations that it might encounter while out in public with its owner. My friend Sandy participated in the clinic with her Australian cattle dog, Red. I tagged along with my camera. Red did really well and I don't think he'll have any trouble passing the test when Sandy puts him through his paces. Our border collie, Magpie, is not yet a canine good citizen. She's shy in social situations, so I need to do more work with her to make her comfortable enough to pass some portions of the test.

Six dogs and their owners attended the clinic. Dana Maroney was the trainer and three members of RDOG were on hand to help with portions of the clinic. Below are some of the photos I took that day.











You can see many more photos from the clinic in my DotPhoto album.

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