Cat Scratch

"There's Just Something About Cats"

I scrapped my book cover painting. I had sent it to my great friend Barb, who is a wonderful watercolorist and my mentor, for critique, you can see her beautiful paintings at http://www.barbarasailor.blogspot.com/ . Before she could get back to me the more I looked, the less I liked. It now resides at the botom of the pile. I've decided to give it a rest for a couple of days and then start again. Grrrr! But, this gave me an opportunity to begin a painting of a picture that appeared in a newspaper in 2006. Barb and I decided to each paint the picture and trade it with each other. It is so great to have a friend who has the same watercolor passion that I do. We met on line after she made a comment concerning a painting I had submitted to a site we both paint once a quarter for http://www.watercolorpassion.com/ . I encourage you to check out this site for some great watercolor paintings. I live on the northeast coast of Brazil in Fortaleza, a city of 2 plus million. Since I live only 2 blocks from the ocean and the city lies behind me this Colorado ranch girl has no sense of so much teeming city life behind me. Oddly enough, watercolor is not popular here, which means I have yet to make acquaintance with fellow watercolor painters. For this reason my friendship with Barb is especially wonderful. Yesterday, I stepped outside my norm and introduced you to my son Pat. But now I am back on track. I mentioned that I love Chickens as well as my cats and posted a few "Chicken" paintings. Today, is Cat Day. I am terrible at doing faces, whether human or animal, you will notice that my cats are in silhouette with a couple of exceptions, so I didn't have to worry about their faces. I'm so clever. The following are figments of my imagination. A friend once told me that my cat paintings are "happy cats" and I believe he is right. This first picture is one of my first attempts at painting a cat. I have no idea how his nose got so big, it just happened, but I love it and he and his mate ended up, not only in this painting, but on several pieces of my pottery. I've titled this painting "Contented"

"Afternoon Snooze" "Dreaming of Summer" "At Peace"

You can click on the smaller images to enlarge them.

"Curiosity"

"Who Are Those Guys?"

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of my Cat paintings. I apologize for the angle of the framed ones, I'm a painter, not a photographer. I saved an article yesterday on how to take pictures of your art for digital processing. Guess I'd better read it! And now for the Real Deal. Say "hellow" to L'il Orphan Annie, "Annie". She is the baby of the family of cats. Some one had dumped her off on my street. Probably heard I was this weird old cat lady who couldn't pass up a poor little stranded stray. She rode underneath my Blazer for over a mile to the gas station, where a good Samaritan helped me rescue her. Her little paw was bleeding. She was so little she barely filled up my cupped hand. I took her home, but it was too late for my vet. Next morning I took her in. He fixed her paw and put it in a cast. Well, having a sweet, playful little kitten around for 2 weeks was a time too long. When it came time to take her to the pet store where they had agreed to sell her to a good home, well you know, I couldn't. Dance with the Cats.