Leonora enjoying the sunshine.  I loved doing this painting, the colours in her coat and the background and the strong light, all seemed to come together in this portrait of Leo.

 A close up of the canvas.

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 little painting is a 10×8 acrylic on canvas board. He’s found a lovely hot spot in the sun on the floor. Cats always know the best places to sleep!

It’s in the SOFA show at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery in Waterloo from the 4th of September.

Chi, my wonderful tabby cat is a dreadful thief! He’s one of those cats who just has to share your food. We tried to stop him begging for food only to find that he’d taken a more creative approach. He’d wait until you sat on the sofa with a snack and he’d sneak up behind you and wait. Just as you raised a nice piece of cheese or ham to your lips a paw would shoot out and take it from your fingers! Leaving you staring at your empty hand in amazement.

He soon had us trained. We quickly learned that it was easier to give him a small morsel from our meal than to be constantly turning around wondering where the next ambush would come from.

So when I had an idea for a painting for the annual Society Of Feline Artists show I instantly thought of Chi as the model. And here he is performing brilliantly.

In the close up detail below you can see his typical expression of bliss.

These five beautiful cats belong to Cindy Larson and I’m trying to capture all five in one large painting. Luckily these five fabulous felines have been pretty co-operative and have all posed in just the right position to make a good picture. This is a large 20×30 painting in acrylics on canvas.

The sketch on the canvas.

 
The under painting.

Starting on the background.

Starting on the cats themselves.  

The finished 30 x 20 painting.

Now it just needs varnishing. The five of them have come together very well and I just love Josie, the Maine Coon, stretched out in the middle of the painting with her amazing tail draped over the edge of the bed.

And here are some close ups of the finished canvas.

This is Mad Dog, I love his casual pose and direct expression.

Isis and Bobina the youngsters. What an unusual and pretty pair they are.

Cooper in laid back mode.

Josie looking wonderfully relaxed.

And this shows the detail of the canvas.

These five cats have been wonderful to paint! I feel like I’ve really got to know them as the painting has progressed. It’ll be sad to see it go to it’s new home.