I thought you might enjoy this photo of the boys. Ming and Charlie are having a discussion about who gets to sit in the sun on the chair. Needles to say, by the time they’d finished fighting for it, Cassie had taken the spot for herself!

This pretty girl is Java. She’s a Tonkinese and she lives with Barb and her beautiful family of Tonks and Siamese cats. She looks so cool and elegant doesn’t she?

 This was painted in acrylics on 16×12 canvas board.

A close up of her eyes.

This is an oil painting of Stan. Stan lived with Sandra and her family and he was quite a little character. Sandra wanted a 16×12 oil painting of Stan.

I started with a sketch of him lying on the floor, looking playfully up at us from an upside down position. A typical mischievous kitten and a real sweetie!

Stan is coming along nicely and as you can see from the photo, I’ve got him onto the canvas board and all the main shapes are there. Now it’s a slow process of building him up and adding colour and detail. This is the fun part of the painting, but slow because it means waiting for each layer of oil to dry before the next one can go on.

And here is the finished painting of Stan on the easel, complete with his frame.

And this is a close up detail of the painting.

This is a portrait of Alice, a gorgeous Bengal cat who lives with Fiona and Andy. She has a wonderful expression as she stares out through the grasses. I wonder what she is looking at?

Alice is sketched onto a 20×16 inch canvas and the under painting is started with light washes of colour. 

Then the blues of the sky and the greens on the grasses are developed. I used several different blues for the sky, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine and Prussian Blue.  

 Finally I start work on Alice herself.

 Finishing touches are her whiskers and details in the seed heads in the grass. This is the finished painting.

A close up detail of the canvas.

The Feline Advisory Bureau is a charity dedicated to promoting the health and welfare of cats. This year is their 50th anniversary and among the celebrations FAB are launching a new book Essential Cattitude: an insight into the feline world. To illustrate the book FAB asked cat loving artists and celebrities to contribute pictures of their favourite felines and I donated ‘The Boss’ a painting of Cassie to the cause.

The book was launched at The Groucho Club in London in February 2008. You can find out much more about Essential Cattitude: An Insight Into The Feline World and even buy a copy on FAB’s web site www.fabcats.org.