New paintings and regular art updates.
Sitting at my feet, staring up, whiskers showing me how keen he is for me to feed him! He looks thin in this photo, but he’s a really big but soft cat. His nose was scratched by another cat outside because he’s not a fighter. He does let other cats bully him. His nose is healed up now. But I keep an eye on him because sometimes he will get a bit battered. Now he’s walking past me and purring. He wants breakfast…
…. In the bad
Gratitude is something I’m trying to find every day. Three little things that I can write even if it’s been a bad day? Things like being stuck in traffic but someone let me out at a junction. I went to an art meeting today and people appreciated what I was saying, and I’ve trained my cat to jump up on my knee when I whistle him so he can have a love. That’s the little light in the dark tunnel. A spark that makes me feel a bit better. I’ll take that. X
In a display case, trapped like a tiger in a cage. Black and brown tabby sculpture. Little legs, massive tail. Iove this piece of cat sculpture at Salts Mill in Saltaire, Yorkshire. I think the technique is scraffito? Where you have a thin layer of slip pover a different colour. When it’s dry you can carve through it to reveal the underlying colour. A purrfect decoration for this wild tabby!
I had to buy a new mat today, the old one was worn out. The cats love it, they have burrowed underneath it, scratched their claws on it, played with a tiny toy and a ball, (both under the sofa now). The mat is where we walk by the sofa and one of the cats has decided he wants to sleep on it, but as I’m walking backwards and forwards over it he’s had to move. No doubt he will sleep there tonight! The cat will be sleeping on the mat. X
One of my cats sleeps on the armchair arms between me and my hubby. He’s there now curled up. Snoring and purring. He’s a big strong cat, and he knows what he wants and where he wants to sleep. In a while he will be sitting by his cat food bowl (not rattling it, just staring at me, eyes half closed), then when he’s ready he will explore the garden and come in again later when we have gone to bed. Sometimes he sleeps half way up the stairs, then we have to watch out incase we step on him, you can see the problem, thank goodness he has a white patch on his back!
I painted my cat sitting at the top of the stairs behind a flower pot several years ago. I just saw this on my Facebook memories as I no longer own the painting. She was a very loving cat and lived to at least twenty years old. (She was a stray when we took her in). She was very clever and used to ride on my shoulders when I walked round the house or the garden. I’ve painted and drawn many of my cats but she was the one I painted the most. X
Jug I decorated at a Stoke on Trent pottery for a Christmas present I did a few years ago. I think that this was done at Stafford Pottery in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. It’s about half the price of the Emma Bridgwater pottery in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. I tend to paint flowers and cats on things like this. I decorated it as a tortoiseshell cat, black tabby and white. These tend to be female cats if I remember rightly. Something to do with their genetics.
You sit in a glass case
Short legged
Long bodied,
Tail raised
Dark and light brown stripes
Ceramic kitty
Strangely pretty!
Staring out in Saltaire
On display
To the world.
She’s lovely, she’s sweet.
She sticks her claws in my knees
Says hello, it’s very cute
But those claws are a brute
Holey trousers, ripped shins,
Make me weep, ouch and eek!
I love her dearly, so much more
But I think my knees don’t need he paw!
His paws are huge
Like a leopard or lion
Stretched out in a tree
Curled up like a kitten
I see him sleeping
Paws twitch, ears alert
Full of purrs
Running like a cheetah
Through a forest
Of dreams…..
Mallaband-Brown