Here is my latest Bengal painting. This is Mulberry sleeping in the hanging basket. Now, I know cats love odd places to sleep and they have a thing for baskets and boxes, but this is taking it to the next level! Well done Mulberry!

This is a 16 x 12 inch painting (roughly), painted in acrylics on William Turner watercolour paper.

This is a close up of the painting.

A new Maine Coon Christmas card. This is Edina trying to catch the stars on the tree. I think she’s got it!

Here is the newest addition to the Christmas cards collection, two Siamese playing in the presents under the tree. These two pretty girls are Yum Yum and Peach Blossom. Now I need to think of a good title for it!

This is the finished portrait of Charlie, my beautiful bengal cat. It’s a  20×16 acrylic painting on canvas. I’ve loved doing this one!

Here’s how it was painted….

I’m painting Charlie, my brown spotted Bengal as a 20×16 canvas. I loved the original photo I took of him staring out of the window, it’s such an intense expression and it really shows off his beautiful eyes. I couldn’t resist painting him.

Stage 1

This is the sketch on the canvas and the first bits of the under painting. His whiskers have blue and violet as a base coat and I’ve started to fill out some of the darks and added some pinks to his ears, nose and mouth.

Stage 2

 I’m using Carmine Red and Jenkins Green to make a rich, dark colour for the background, applying that roughly with a large brush and letting the colours mix on the canvas.

I’m using Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber for his body and various oranges and golds along with the brown to emphasize his markings. I’ve worked on his nose in particular, developing that lovely pinky orange colour of his nose leather and the blue highlights in the fur just above his nose.

This is a close up view of stage 2 of the painting.

Stage 3

Working on his body now. I want a suggestion of spots but without too much detail as most of his body is in shadow. Fine tuning the fur on his face and starting those wonderful green eyes.

Stage 4

In this final photo of the series I’ve finished his eyes, added his whiskers, finished off his ears and added his gold collar as well as adding many small touches of pure colour to bring certain areas of the painting to life.

This close up of the painting shows the details of his eyes and the fur in the ears as well as some of the final touches like the blues and violets around his muzzle. I’ve really enjoyed painting Charlie.

This is a commissioned painting of Sienna, a beautiful Burmese cat and her litter of Tonkinese kittens. They are so sweet and they make a wonderful picture of happy feline family life. I started with sketch ideas.

Then I sketched out the pose on to canvas and using very light layers of acrylic I started to build up the dark layers of Sienna herself, the golds in the background and the darker noses and ears of the kittens.

Then I concentrated on Sienna, bringing her form to life on the canvas. Now to start on the kittens……

And here is the finished painting with the kttens fully developed and the background deepened.

Click the image to see a close up detail