Feb 28, another Puma and THE LIST! 30 Cats in 30 Days!

So here it is!  The Final Actual Official List for this year's 30 Cats in 30 Days Project starting TOMORROW!!!
I thought I'd best post another Wild Cat Painting too-  this is another version of Catamount...

6x6 acrylic on panel, click HERE to purchase at $75~

And THE LIST!

And please do know that I reserve the artistic right to change this list and swap it around as I see fit!  So yes, it is set in stone, but it is MY stone and I might just blast and recarve it if necessary!

Thank you so much for following!

March 1- Delilah, for Freddie Mercury

2- Ari, for Robert S

3- Jack, for Joe O

4- June, for Kat & Family

5- Ella, for Carolyn (and Tim?)

6- Hank, for Loralee

7- Jelly, for Kris M

8- Simon, for Maggie E (painted at Wet Paint, I hope)

9- John's Cat (for Tom S)

10- Jojo, for Emily J

11- Glow, for Kat L

12- Molly, for Monica C

13- Jasmine, for Darcy

14- Peter, for Tina B

15- Sophie, for Carolyn (and Heidi?)

16- Maud, for Becky L

17- Mabel, for Emily K

18- Smokey Bones, for Emily GK

19- Ally, for Jim U

20- Mouse, for Susan P

21- Gato, for Anne V

22- Amelie, for David K (painted at Wet Paint, I hope!)

23- Dennis, for Susan G

24- Milo, for Susan G

25- Raspberry, for Lily and Eliz

26- Riley, for Cynthia

27- Tigger, for Maggie E (in NY somewhere)

28- Doyle, for Becky L

29- Meow Parlor Cat, at the Meow Parlor, Manhattan!

30- Mystery Guest

31- Mystery Guest

Feb 27, Aslan

Aslan is a lion who lived at the Wild Cat Sanctuary to his old age, a few years ago, and I wanted to be sure and do him justice.  I don't think he was that old in this photo, but it never ceases to amaze me how elegant and superior some animals can be... maybe I mean regal, but that's the word that popped out.  The tilt of his head, and that crown of a mane, and those eyes looking down the length of his nose all contribute to the impression of royalty.  Even if it was the girls who took down the zebras and did all the work.  I like this one.

6x6 acrylic on panel, click HERE to purchase, for $75

Feb 26, Catamount

Wowzers!  Cats' faces are SO different!  And those colors too- I am really having to pay attention to what I'm doing here.  This stuff is tough~
This is a mountain lion~

6x6 acrylic on panel, click here for purchase info~

Feb 24, Minnesota Lynx

I have been getting a lovely cascade of kitty cat pictures to look through!!! I'll be posting the Final Actual Real List on Saturday!  DO still send me photos, and I will always take commissions!

This is the beautiful lynx at the Minnesota Zoo.  I think my husband must've taken this photo because it seems too good to be one of mine.  It's getting so I can't tell anymore which photos are whose!
I had some trouble getting the greys to read well on her mane, and am still not sure about some of the bits.  I had to draw some of it upside down because I didn't have the proportions correct.  Kinda like yesterday's lioness...

6x6 acrylic on panel, available for purchase HERE~ $75

Feb 23, Lioness Shanti Diva

Another lovely big cat from the sanctuary!  There is maybe such a noticeable anatomical difference between these cats and my otters that I'm tossing myself back and forth... because I feel like I am struggling more with proportion than I would expect to...

6x6 acrylic on panel, another auction... click HERE to bid starting at $25!

Feb 20, Gus Squeeze

Hee!  And every so often, I let myself play with my biggest challenge, those darn humans!  This is such a wacky shot and I love Max's look, and Gus' suffering endurance...
Working with colors and building up those skin tones, where are there darks and lights, ack!
I'm getting more cats for my month, thank you all!  Do keep sending them!  It's so GREAT!  30 Cats in 30 Days more info here!

8x8 acrylic on panel, available HERE~

Feb 19, Rising to the Surface

I worked on this one the other night-  have a couple commissions I'm wanting to finish as well.  It is so nice to have distractions, really-  you have to step away for a bit and look at something else, and then when you come back you see again with fresh eyes, and those bits of things that were bothering you when you last looked aren't bugging you anymore, but you might see something new that now needs attending...
Not sure I love the title.  What do you think?

24x36 acrylic on cradled wood, click HERE to purchase~

Feb 17, Twist and Splash

I've been painting bigger and bigger-  this one is 30x30 on cradled wood, and it was SO fun to paint!  Yesterday Max and Kahliyah and I went to the Dick Blick in Edina to get some frames and bigger canvases and I got 2 30 x 40's and had to slide them in front of the kids' feet in the back seat because I couldn't get them into the trunk...  they were really great about it, careful of the canvases, didn't kick them with their dirty boots!  And I painted a magenta ground on both of them, and started a big double-otter piece on one last night while watching "Northern Exposure" as Duane continued paper macheing his giant masks for the Minneapolis Lantern Festival this Saturday night, from 5 to 8pm! I'll post In Progree pics of the otters, and DO come downtown on Sat night to see the festival!  We'll be there!
Oh and PLEASE send me cat pics!  I've been terrible about sending out the piles of postcards I have! I need to get more cats for my 30 Cats in 30 Days project or I'll have nothing to send to the Wild Cat Sanctuary!

30x30 Acrylic on cradled wood, available for purchase HERE ~

2/15/15 Touching Both Worlds

Otters are one of those creatures that live in two places at once... and they are the same whole being no matter which world they are in, the underwater one or the solid ground one.  They can be the same in both, fluid, slick, active, enthusiastic... a good lesson for me to keep in mind when I feel off balance in any of a number of human situations...

This is a 16x20 acrylic on canvas, available for purchase HERE~

Feb 13, Tonka the Tiger!

For my 30 Cats in 30 Days project this March, I am sponsoring the Wild Cat Sanctuary in Sandstone, MN and I figured I'd better get some practice in painting cats, so this is Tonka the tiger!  His story is right here-  I love the blue tones behind this guy-  they make the oranges absolutely POP!

8x8 acrylic on panel, click HERE to purchase at $135!

Feb 12, Puma

Wow, did I have a hard time with this last night!  As a demo, I wanted to paint an animal for my class and the first one turned out terrible so this is the SECOND totally repainted version, which  I feel a lot better about.. but I think I have been painting tigers so much that this one feels a bit more like a tiger than a cougar~
Weird, huh?
And then I've been working on my big otter paintings, so I've included a pic of Observational Viewer for you!  I like the reflections so far near his head, but I need to play with the rear reflections more...
Any suggestions/reaction/advice are welcome!

6x6 acrylic on panel, click HERE to buy at $65! 

Feb 10, Backfoot Downstroke

This is a little study for a larger piece-  I'm working on my bigger series and it is so helpful to work some of the proportion and compositions in a smaller format first, though of course it doesn't always translate so neatly to the big picture... sometimes the tiny paintings are just fine on their own!
And I really should be painting cats... to prepare for the month ahead!  If you haven't sent me your cat pics yet, send 'em in NOW!
Wahoo!

6x6 acrylic on panel!  Click HERE to bid, starting at $35, or buy for $75!

Feb 8, Pastel and Acrylic Otter...

This is an experiment in color texture...  and I am also wondering if it works visually... acrylic with pastel... I like the color effects with the pastel on top of the acrylic~  maybe there's not enough otter-butt sticking out of the water~

Hmmmm~

16x20 acrylic and pastel on canvas-  not for sale yet...

Feb 6, Nokomis Parkway Shadows

Bit busy... here's what we are wishing it looked like around here... I won't go into the efforts it took to clean the backyard up today from two dogs' productions... for a week...
Ack.  Everything has melted and it is a muddy dirty mess.  It's that ucky part of Minnesota Spring...  which is isn't yet, because March can always slap you with a pile of snow...

16x20 acrylic on canvas, click HERE to PURCHASE at $650~

Feb 5, Pacing With His Eyes Closed

He knows the path so well, there's no need to look.  Who wants to see the people on the other side of the glass? They have no idea what it's like to live here, clothed in stripes, bearing claws and teeth.

Another one I rather like.  Crazy how the right colors and strokes make themselves appear.  Somedays the magic works~

6x6 acrylic on panel, click HERE to purchase at $75~

Feb 4, Theo Wirth by the Bog (Without Traffic)

This is a view heading north on Theo Wirth Parkway just by the Quaking Bog the other morning with the sun shining through the trees~  yesterday I was heading home the opposite direction and it took me a half an hour to pass this spot.  Slight snow (maybe 2 inches) but it was slick~
THis one will be up for auction, my dears!
And if you get a hankering for good basic decent food, I have a small collection of paintings hanging at Curran's Pub on Nicollet and 42nd street!

6x6 acrylic on panel, click HERE to bid! Starting at $25-

Feb 3, Downstroke

Still trying to really figure out this piece-  this one is an 8x10 acrylic on panel study for my larger work.  I love the movement and flow, but want to get more of the feel of the water involved.  More color?  More bubbles?  I like this one as it is, it is a fine little piece.  Now, I have to tackle the large one again!  Ack!

Oh and I also got a great little rejection note about the Mn State Art Board Grants-  I just missed getting in by a couple points, so I'll just work it a little harder next time.  Some of those goals of my life are sure to come true eventually if I keep trying, right? Winning a grant award, getting in to a big gallery... all that fun stuff~

8x10 acrylic on panel, click here to bid!  Starting at $50!  Or buy at $160!

Happy Groundhog's Day!

It is our Seventh Wedding Anniversary today! The traditional anniversary gifts are wool and copper and I thought about painting a sheep on copper but I don't know where my copper sheets are (maybe at Duane's studio?) and don't feel like painting a sheep and found this great photo on the internet and love the strong contrast in light as well as the pert expression on his face!  What a creature!  Maxie and I were talking about groundhogs this morning and how they can live all over the place in a small patch of grass near a highway, and that they can be nocturnal and diurnal as long as they sleep sometime.

I've included a wedding photo for you below!

Yes, I do really like this one!

8x8 acrylic on panel, click here to purchase at $135!

It was SUCH a great day to get married out on a lake with all our friends and family!

Feb 1, Here Kitty Kitty!

The first tiger of February!
I almost forgot we have a new month today... how does that happen?  Like I thought January was going to go on forever...  sometimes it feels like that in Minnesota...
I painted this one upside down because I just wasn't getting the proportion and positioning of the eyes correct and now I love it!
I also want to invite you to participate in my 30 Cats in 30 Days Project this March by sending me photos of your cat so I can sift through and choose the best ones and paint one cat a day for the month!
Yay!

6x6 acrylic on panel, click HERE to make this one YOURS! $75~