Riley is sitting by the pond on a warm summers day watching the fish swim by beneath him. I wonder how good he is at fishing? This is an acrylic painting on canvas.

This is Forrest, Laura’s Abyssinian cat and he’s rolling around on the floor playing with his toy blue mouse. I loved the reflections of him in the wood and the wonderful colours in the shadows and the shine from the floor. So tempting! I have a thing for painting reflections at the moment.

This is acrylic painting on watercolour paper. Click the image to see a close up detail.

Hobbes, a beautiful tabby point Siamese cat, is enjoying an afternoon asleep on the bed. Where else would a cat be?

I loved his comfortable pose and the patterns on the bed covers and I wanted to try and capture his expression of bliss in a painting and I liked the challenge of the patterns too.  

First I sketched him onto watercolour paper and used masking fluid to preserve the white lines of the pattern. Then the first layers of colour were washed on using watercolour and left to dry. I like watercolour as an under painting because it’s easy to make changes. Once it was fully dry the making fluid was removed and the next layers of the pattern were developed with acrylics. Colours were adjusted as I painted and the lines were tidied up.

Then Hobbes himself was painted and shadows and highlights added to the covers underneath him. Finally the whiskers were added.

 Asleep On The Bed is a 16×12 acrylic painting on watercolour paper.