'The Avatar Purr', a painting
of my dear Tortie against a background of my favourite
scarf. I love the colour combination of Blue and CalicoCat
and if this painting is to be my avatar (who'd have thought
I'd ever have one of those!) there should be something
personal there too.
My painting 'Wilbur in the Window' has a
little bit of Ireland in it - what is Wilbur dreaming
about, sleeping in his celtic window?
While I have tried to depict some mystery and longing, he's
probably dreaming about rabbits.....
This painting was a bit of a
departure for me in the way of subject matter. Wilbur
has been out wandering at Halloween and has picked up
a little bit of Magic on the way. This painting was
the first one to be chronicled in my blog and it was
interesting for myself to look through it all when I
had finished painting to see how it had developed. You
can click here to have a look.
Now here's the last painting I did in Ireland. It's a
picture of Frankie and Wilbur in the field in front of the
house.
It's one of the paintings I've done 'just for myself' - I
wanted it, so that I can remember that I stood there
once......
Frankie is so called because
of his lovely blue eyes and liking for a good ballad. He
lived as a wild cat in the surrounding fields for a long
time.
We don't think that he was ever a stray - he just never had
a home with people. But eventually he gave in to regular
food and a comfy box (he never has been a bed cat) - even
so, some of that wildness remains.
Our vet wears leather gauntlets.
Wilbur is the nearest creature Frank has ever had to a
friend, which is why I pictured them together.
Difficult to believe if you should see him now, but Wilbur,
my fluffy Muse, was a stray and turned up one day at the
place where we used to work in Ireland....
'There's a stray cat just turned up,' said H. (short for
husband)
'We can't have another cat,' said meself.
The following afternoon on my trek across to the ladies in
the pouring rain, I first saw him sitting in the middle of
a small patch of dry ground against a wall. This was
somehow protected from the wet and the wind and he sat
inside it watching out for The World. Our eyes met and his
little thin paws started padding up and down (you know how
they go).
I didn't see him again until the following morning when I
was sitting at my drawing board nursing and cursing a
red-wine hangover. I heard miaowing outside and there he
was. I took out the pouch of cat-food I just happened to
have in my lunchbag, and gave it to him. He ate most of it
before it even had time to touch the saucer.
So that was the coming of Wilbur.
Today he has his own microchip and his own passport (with
his photo of course).
And he's been around the A86 in Paris.
This is an acrylic painting
'sketch' I have done of Wilbur, he is very photogenic with
his long eyelashes and his eye-liner. I would normally
never leave a painting as 'un-done' as this one, as I love
to put in detail and smooth out all the edges. But I think
this picture is finished the way it is.
I am also working out at the moment, about doing
commissioned animal portraits - I am thinking of a
different idea from the animal's head on a plainish
background.......something like the picture of 'Frankie and
Wilbur' above, which includes a place or a house and has a
bit of a story attached to it.
Wilbur again - this time in coloured pencil. I was
surprised at just how versitile coloured pencils are.
I've been experimenting with a combination of ordinary
graphite pencil for the initial layout sketch, then a high
quality felt-tip drawing pen, then coloured pencil, then a
final overlay of pen. I've been very pleased with the way
it works - but I think you always get the best results on
coloured paper. Then you can use the white and cream
pencils to good effect - and the sky blue really brings the
picture out as well.
So I thought that I'd try a Wilbur portrait using coloured
pencils.
I know that I'm on
dodgy ground bringing this picture into the Cat Section,
but it's also done in coloured pencils - so that's where
the connection is...
Three cockerels came to live close by when we lived in the
house in Ireland. They were never ours to look after, they
belonged to someone else, but we loved them all the same.
We bought some chicken food for them and they would stand
on the doorstep in the morning and 'cock-a-doodle-do' until
they were fed. They really did 'cock-a-doodle-do' which was
a surprise to meself - but my favourite, Paxo (in the
picture) was very shy and would only make a very soft
blurping noise if you were anywhere
nearby.
This is a portrait of our friends’ Cat, Diva. Also done in
coloured pencils, so I'm having a bit of an experiment
here. She has the most lovely face and very expressionable
whiskers. Our friends love Ireland, which is the reason for
the Celtic Pattern.
send me an email at: ramplingj@me.com