Sometimes as an artist you feel the need to rework a painting. This painting, ‘Gorgeous’, is of my Somali girl Muffin. I’d put this painting aside, not sure about how to finish her until very recently, when the arrival of a couple of new oil colours inspired me to finish it.

I really wanted to build up her coat with some thick, luscious paint. Somali cats are notorious for sitting in odd positions, and Muffin loves sitting upright against the cushions of the sofa. With the sun streaming in her coat lit up with gold and fiery oranges.

I wanted to get that fluffy fur in paint texture, so I used knife painting to build up layers of colour.

I was very pleased with the final result and I think she looks beautiful in her white Italian frame. :-)

This is one of my favourite paintings! This lovely lad is Mirsku and as you can see, he’s quite a character. Very lively, full of fun and a great looking cat too. He lives in Finland with The King of Finland and his other feline subjects.

Spring Cleaning
10×8 inch acrylic on board
SOLD

I had lots of photos to choose from when I came to paint Mirsku but this pose, with him laying upside down casually washing a paw with his legs akimbo, really made me laugh. So I just couldn’t resist it. I wanted to capture that fun loving personality.

I used a board coated in Liquitex ceramic stucco to give it a rougher texture. You can see the texture in the detail photo above. He’s a grey and white cat but his fur is so full of colour, lilacs and blues with warm patches of naples yellow. A joy to paint!

This is Princess lying upside down in her favourite chair. Enjoying a spot of heat bathing!

Another of the Christmas commissions is Frank. I rather fell for Frank as I was painting him. He looks to be quite a character. He was also a lot of fun to paint as he’s sitting partly in sun and partly in shade and the colours in his fur change with the light.

A close up of the canvas…. 

This is a sketch of Karli (aka Dovepeak Paintedlaydi) a gorgeous tortie and white Devon Rex cat. She is such a cutie and those beautiful enormous yellow green eyes makes her wonderful to paint! I think her breed name is very appropriate. She lives in Devon with Sarah and Ian and the rest if the feline family.

Here is the finished painting of Big Beautiful Eyes.  It’s a small picture, 8×8 inches, painted in watercolour and acrylics on watercolour paper in very light washes to keep the delicacy of the sketch and the impact of her amazing eyes.