My old cat

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Sorry for the bad photo of this, but this was my old cat. She was on the big painting I posted a few days ago. She was very clever and if I tapped the wall on the other side of the gate she would jump the gap. I decided to take a photo on an old 35mm Olympus trip camera (this was before digital). She jumped on cue and I snapped the photo. When I saw it I decided to paint it. I won a small prize in a local art exhibition.

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Cat tree

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In winter the cats retreat to their cat tree. It’s angled to be close to the  radiator. The female fits neatly on her tray. But the male is more squashed up. He squeezes on but his leg and tail sometimes flop off the edge. His tray is slightly further away from the radiator, bur they have always kept the same positions, they don’t swap. Sometimes if they get too hot they go off in search of different places. Then comes the battle of the armchairs. The cats know which is my hubby’s and like stealing his seat if he goes out of the room….

If I coukd I would shrink down to cat size and curl up on the top tray above the two cats and relax. They don’t use it so it’s free….

Read through this cat!

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Is your cat asleep on your Sunday paper? Snuggled up and warm? How can I possibly move him…. Two hours… Four hours.. Finally he went off for some food an I got the chance to read the paper.

I think cats can sleep up to 16 hours a day? well I might be wrong. Mine usually find the warmest spot and snooze. Sometimes when they are dreaming they twitch. That’s interesting to watch, whiskers and paws moving rapidly. Tail flicking. Ears moving. What interesting dreams they must have….

Cats are beautiful to paint, they are sleek and lithe. They make interesting shapes and are graceful. As you can tell I’m a fan.

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1993 painting

I’ve got this four foot by five foot oil painting that I did in 1993 on the living room wall. It’s just behind where I sit, and sometimes I knock onto it, so I’m occasionally worried that the string it’s on will break and it will come crashing down!

Anyway, you can tell I love cats. The big one was on the front of a magazine if I remember. The small one in the corner, playing with the wool, was ours. We had her for about nineteen years. I just found the photos on my Facebook memories page. The figure is me and I’ve painted a baggy jumper I had. I love patterns and painted the wallpaper pattern. This was my studio before we moved to out current home.

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He’s getting a new home x

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The cat we have looked after for eighteen months is finally going to a new home.

We can’t take him in because we have two cats if our own that live permanently indoors. The one that is going lives outside in our shed. It’s been difficult for him but it’s not been very cold yet this winter, and if anything he’s put on weight.

So things are looking good. We are introducing him to his new owners so he gets used to them. Fresh roast chicken is helping. (sorry if you are vegetarian). He should be going in the next week or so to a new forever home.

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Curled up cat

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He’s sitting on my chair,

lying on my bed,

eating my food,

drinking my milk.

He’s taking the mickey,

having a laugh,

being very cheeky,

making me wait.

He knows I won’t move him,

won’t pick him up,

put his paws on the floor,

put him out of the door.

He’s a very lucky kitty,

sleeping on my chair,

he should be here..

and I should be there!

Cat sketch

dsc_2407.jpgI do like sketching in biro, you can get a good strong line, but by varying the pressure on the pen its good for shading. I have also found that by spraying the biro with hairspray you can sometimes get the ink to blur and bleed. If you are using black or blue biro you get interesting colours flowing from the lines. I guess it depends on the chemicals in both the pen and the hairspray. It might not always work. I have also used hairspray as a fixative for astel and charcoal drawings.

Did you know you can use milk sprayed onto charcoal or pastel as a fixative too? I found an old perfume bottle with an atomiser and used that to spray drawings. They might end up smelling a bit cheesy but it works. You just have to remember to wash out the bottle and spray after use.