"I can't believe you really bathed me."

"I can't believe you really bathed me."
Oil on canvas
12" x 12"
(A commentary on feline bewilderment with human behavior.)

Oh my! This guy was just so cute and forlorn (as any dripping wet cat has the right to be) that I had to paint him. Plus, I had so much fun painting my Aunt's cat, Muffin, and then another cat for a client...that I just had to keep going.

I really do best love the expressions on some of these put-upon cats. The cat portrait for the client was dignified, but Muffin was also captured post-bath and ALSO not very excited about the fact.




I do not officially endorse soaking a cat just to send me adorable shots of forlorn or pissed-off kitty faces...but I won't turn them down either!

Here seen more close-up...I might do a bunch of these and print a set of greeting cards and this would be a good composition for something along those lines.

My first oil painting

So...I've been wanting to try oils for a while since sometimes acrylic dries too quickly to be able to blend and build like I want (especially that one day painting a wedding scene in full sun).

Unwilling to deal with solvents though, I was given a set of these new water-soluble oils, which use no solvents and will thin and clean up with water.

I've had these paints since Christmas, folks, and only picked them up 2 days ago.

What prompted this? Painter's block. Usually ideas pour forth, but not lately, and when I've forced myself to paint (just get back on the horse, right?) the resulting half-finished works have been...miserable.

But...I thought...since I can't paint I might as well just play around with this new-fangled toy...see how they work.

So there I go, working on another one of my car-taken snapshots, this time coming off the Bay Bridge and gazing at my beloved San Francisco with Sutro tower silhouetted against the fading sky.

I won't say the painting process wasn't hard...it was and I had to push through some rough bits and hating my progress. Not because the paint was difficult to work with but just simply because of the blocked creativity I was going through. I have to say though that being able to continue to blend, correct, adjust, try new things and not have my paint dry on me was probably the only reason I made it through to the other side - with, finally, a newly completed painting.

Coming home...

This is a sight that my Mom is more familiar with, having commuted to the East Bay for many years, but I rarely pass over the San Mateo - Hayward bridge anymore, although I grew up not far from it...

On this day I was driving home from an all day meeting and I was so, so tempted pass on the chance to snap some pictures, give into exhaustion and simply drive home. I'm glad I didn't though as this little acrylic is really starting to grow on me.

I've been spending more time on the road at sunset in the last 6 months and when I started snapping pictures I thought it was all in vain - my phone would never pick up the detail I needed to paint from.

Turns out that removing some detail created an opening for me to be more creative and make the painting be what I wanted and not merely a replica of the photograph.


"Coming home..."
Acrylic on canvas board.
9" x 12"
2011