Yes, another spanish goat.... my brother just got the greatest photos of these! He and my sister in law are great hikers and on this day they went on a 14 mile hike through the Spanish hills where they were staying and saw all these goats... I loved this one's step and that lifted foreleg!
Man, i meant to be posting WAY more than I have been! Sheesh-
This is a goat from a photo my brother sent to me while wandering in Spain back in March- I was fascinated by the shapes of her (or him... don't know why but she strikes me as more feminine... how do you sex a goat anyway?) and the spaces around her, and by those crazy clingy sticky hoovies! Look at how she's standing sideways! Oh and the eyes too! SO cool!
I'll either have her with me at the Sculpture Park Art Fair at the Walker May 9 and 10 or I'll be hanging her at Diamond's for May-june!
I'm getting the 30 Cats over to Diamonds this afternoon to hang them for the month, so if you're in town, feel free to come on by!
This goat is from a photo my brother Tom sent a week or so ago when he and his wife were rambling around Spain. They are true adventurers... finding out of the way places and hiking for 14 miles up and down stony areas, taking amazing photos so I don't have to. And that's where these goats were!
I loved this one, those toey-hoofies clinging so well to the rock~
And the big sky above~
Here's an Easter Otter for you! This is a lovely large one I painted in Grand Marais at the end of March, during my residency with Michelle Miles at the Art Colony. I am still obsessed both with otters and with water reflections and how to paint something nebulous and ever changing...
The nose and head of this otter look a lot like a capybara to me, something with the shape of her nose. I also love that paw just lifting from the water, and the creamy colors of the rocks behind her, and something about that calm look in her eye...
Oh and the whiskers!
Gotta love those whiskers~
I'm a little preoccupied at the moment, playing a bit in Florida with Duane and Max, and my uncles' generosity... but this is a little pup from my Grand Marais Adventures! I'd taken this photo a long time ago at LOLA in our neighborhood, and just love that little face, and the earnestness those eyes are looking at you with....
I had a request for just One more critter for the month, and because Beth has been a fantastic patron and because she sent SUCH a cute photo of her Oliver, here he is!
I LOVE those little toesies!!!!
I just got back from my week up at the Art Colony- I'll start posting those paintings this week, actually...
And Michelle was with me up there- she has been a part of this amazing cohort of women artists who annually work at the Art Colony together. We were begun as a group gathered through artist and poet and one of the original WARM artists, Elizabeth Erickson. She guided us as a part of the Women's Art Institute and gently nudged and poked and prodded us into developing skills and seeking further knowledge about our chosen media, as well as exploring other subjects and tools. She was an incredibly generous soul, very quietly but strongly spiritual in her own living.
So we continue as best we can.
And this is Michelle's sister's cat, who carries a very strong name for such a strong face.
This is my friend's daughter's cat, in her sink, quite conveniently waiting for anyone wanting to wash their hands or brush their teeth... she's got such gorgeous fluff! I'm sure she left some fluff around to make it interesting...
Max is a junior at Roosevelt High School, which is also 3 blocks away and contains a multitude of simply amazing, generous, thoughtful, considerate and kind humans including the legendary Principal Ledesma, who somehow manages to do his job and be everywhere at once! He is at games, plays, choir recitals, picnics, breakfasts, and he's great at posting about how incredible his students and staff are. This painting is from a photo Principal Ledesma posted of the two pigeons who are living on the roof of the school, and he's named them after the assistant principals, Lucas and Gonzales. And since I seem to be on a cat mode, I thought a bird or two could be fun!
Here is Smokey, from Christine for Anja's birthday, with a story about Smokey written by Anja~
"Smokey, a 21-year-old Chartreux with a dense blue-grey coat, golden eyes, and a calm that never left her. An angel who followed one like a loyal shadow through the highs and lows of life together, always appearing at one's side, steady and present, a gentle constant through every season.
That gentleness had a story behind it. The Chartreux is one of France's oldest natural breeds, tracing back to at least the 13th century. For generations, Carthusian monks at the Grande Chartreuse monastery near Grenoble shaped these cats into what Smokey was — resilient, patient, intelligent, and almost meditative in spirit. Smokey embodied all of it. And like those original monastery cats, no mouse ever escaped her. That same stillness could shift, in an instant, to lightning-fast precision.
And this is Izzy, who was Jesse's cat when my friend Lissa met him, and so this story is in her words- and they are the lovely people who found and raised our Pipin for us! Excellent cat fosters!
I did have a scheduled creature for today but I haven't gotten the photos yet so I'm jumping ahead to this one, which is actually a photo I took of my sister's giant cat Max, who is a huge personality, and i loved his whiskers in this! It is a large painting, 24x24 so the mustachios have an even bigger impact in person...
And I am sending out a reminder about my Paint Love Six-Week Session starting on April 11, Saturday from 9:30-12! Because you KNOW you want to!!
I'm up in Grand Marais at the Art Colony painting for a week- glad I have some cats to concentrate on because, as usual, I'm all over the place and not sure what I really want to paint, and I have a new passport and want to go up to Canada since I haven't been there in forever, but I'm a bit nervous and haven't left yet and now i'm afraid i'm going to need a nap before I go because I've been up since 6:30...
Fudeg-
And this is Miko, my nephew's girlfriend's cat, which is sweet because he is pretty allergic to cats! Though I do think he likes them...
Wahoo! This is the boneless Ozzy (Meet Oz (Ozzy, Oswald, Bubbas, Ozzybear)) for Madeline, sent by her mom, my friend Vera!
This just seemed SUCH a regal pose, with that upheld head and the eyes raised... i just had to paint this one! SO many great photos!
And so many incredible cats- I enjoyed working to get that lit pink in his ears, and that glowing blue of his eyes... and ALl those whiskers!
And this is Beatrice~
I love those older grama names... as a teacher for 30 plus years, I've had students with nearly every possible name and it is always fun when I hear a name and think "Wow! I haven't taught anyone named that yet!"- recently Stuart is a name I haven't taught, as well as Fred, Edmund, Erma, and now Beatrice...
This face is a good one~
Here is Beatice's story, by Beth~
"Beatrice or the Queen Bea. You know how dads will say they aren't "cat people." They will scoff, protest, and even point to their allergies. And then a cat comes along that changes everything. Dad loves that cat in spite of everything, and that cat becomes his world. Beatrice is not "that cat." But when "that cat" passed away and broke his heart, he swore he'd never get another. We didn't believe him, and when we found multiple cats at the shelter that all had the same photo, we thought that one of those might be a good option. We told the shelter give us the one that would be the hardest to place. Beatrice came home. She was a rescued barn cat with her second litter of kittens. She was skinny and tired. We brought her home to rest. Days and weeks of patience brought her out of her shell, and she became a queen. Now she is sassy, rules the roost (and our dogs), and has Dad wrapped around her paw. "That cat" wore Dad down and taught him to love cats. Beatrice got "that Dad" with no assembly required. "
And this is Bert! Welcome to spring! I am typing this on our upper deckin the lovely Minneapolis spring weather- I hung the first wash of the spring on the line and have been packing for my trip to the Art Colony tomorrow- it's always hard to know exactly what I'll be working on when I get there... I have lots of ideas but nothing has quite struck home yet... dogs? more cats, of course yes I will be painting cats, and maybe turkeys... otters too because i can't quite not paint them, but often something surprising comes up and I'll end up painting something new~
We'll see! I have a lot of canvases to cover...
And i loved this version of Bert looking slightly upwards- such light in that little face!
I seem to have a lot of black cats this year- it's funny how that works. It seems every year there's some kind of a common theme. One year I had a lot of Siamese cats, another year a lot of orange tabbies... I love that. I've always loved black cats- Jeebo was my fluffy black lovey that I got at the pound in the early 00s, because she walked up one arm, across my shoulders, and down the other arm and how can you NOT get the cat when they do that?! We had her til Maxie was about 3 or 4... she was lovely.
And THIS is Sirius Black, my friend Cheryl's kitten that happened to her when she rescued a cat that she didn't realize was a MOMMA cat... at least, I think that was how the story went-
This was a fun one to paint!
These two took me all morning to paint- good thing it's my spring break and I had all morning! And then I went to post them and realized I'd forgotten their whiskers... so here they are! I love this one a lot!
And the story is by Beth, Summer's mom-
Cats like to be in spaces that encourage peeking, hiding, feeling hidden so as to be able to pounce, maybe that make them feel more secure in their self image like my fav pairs of jeans... and hence, Cole, in the sink...
Cole is a very black cat, also pictured in March 12's post where his golden eyes gleam from behind Henry- and I loved painting him in this white sink!
I love this one- what a beauty! Those eyes, that slightly tipped head, just so lovely. That's what a cat is for~
And this one was just a delight to paint, i gotta tell ya- look at all that fluff! SO great!
Here's Oscar's story from Signe~
"He is a pure bred Ragdoll that I adopted from a breeder, so no adventurous rescuing him from a terrible fate. But I did reserve him for my 40th birthday after the passing of my long time feline companion, Trygve. "
