Yellow or Orange Tabby Cat Portrait

This is a custom cat painting I did recently.  I'm quite happy with it and am feeling that I'm growing again as a painter.  For years, even, I thought I wasn't making any progress in my painting abilities.  Now, I feel I'm understanding and seeing my subjects better all the time.  It's a good feeling.

Obviously, the original has already been sold, but prints are available.

I also recently finished a rough-coated collie painting and another cat painting -- a black and white one this time.  I'll try to upload them later this week.

With my ceramics work as well as my paintings, I've been really busy lately.  It can become overwhelming, but I'm learning to look at one day at a time and just keep working, and work does eventually pay off!

Cat Painting, Black and Blue Tabby with Green Eyes

This is another cat painting I finished very recently.  He's another custom painting, so the 11x14" original has already been sold.  I think he's a beauty, and I'm quite happy with the outcome of the painting. 

I have another custom cat painting to do and a dog custom painting, which I think is a Weimaraner puppy (can't remember exactly at the moment). 

Although ceramics are still taking up a bit of my time, I'm getting more and more painting done -- and loving it.

Spring is still struggling to take hold here in Oregon.  We get a few nice days, then back to nasty rain again.  I'll be missing rain, though, in just a couple more months when we get pretty much no rain until late September.  Wish it weren't so "all-or-none" here. 

I still intend to go to France in September and am still excited about it.  Just kind of waiting at this point, though.  Still don't know how long I'll be there, though.  We shall see . . .

We have my son-in-law's parents visiting from  Denmark at the moment, and everyone is having a good, but busy, time.  My little granddaughter is the most excited as all grandparents I think love to shower little ones with whatever is their hearts' desire at the moment.  They're up on Mount Hood for a few days now, and she reports that she's having a grand time!

The Finished Cat painting

Not a whole lot different than the one I posted before, but I brightened everything up a lot and made a few small changes.  I like it.  It looks like a happy kitten, who's thinking about mischief (aren't they all???)

Now I've got two more commissioned paintings coming up, so I'll be working on them for the next month.  Still trying to keep my commissions at no more than two per month so I have time to enjoy life. 

And spring is coming!!!  I can feel it!  Here in Oregon, it's v-e-r-y slow in arriving, but there are signs:  trees starting to bloom, bulb flowers in full bloom, a few days of real sunshine every so often, people out and about more and more, my thoughts turning to travel again (although, unless things change, my France trip isn't happening until September -- and as I think I've mentioned before, its length keeps getting shorter and shorter due to a certain little one who is too young just yet to go with me without both of us being miserable), just all kinds of signs that spring is, well, springing!!

I must close with:  An early springtime many years ago, my aunt was leaving her job at a neat old hotel (now destroyed, I'm sad to say) in Pensacola, Florida, called Hotel San Carlos.  She was standing at a street corner when an obviously a-bit-inebriated man approached her with a big smile.  She was a bit nervous, but then he said that he wanted to recite a poem for her.  Here it is:  "Spring is sprung, grass is riz, I wonder where them flowers is."  That's it!

We have enjoyed reciting it every springtime since then -- along with e. e. cummings "In Just Spring," of course!!!  One of my favorites!  Here it is if, one, you're not familiar with it or, two, you just want to have a warm, fuzzy remembrance:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176657.

A Pretty Cat I'm nearly finished with

Sorry about the quality of the photo, but I think you can get an idea of what the painting is about:  She's a pretty little tuxedo kitten that I'm doing a custom painting of.  Her name is Bea, and she's lying on her favorite blanket.  I'll be finishing it today, so I'll post a photo of the finished painting later on today or tomorrow. 

Okay, off to work now.  Just wanted to show her off because I think black-and-white ("tuxedo") cats are so adorable, and she's a particularly pretty one.

I've been away a while because I've been awfully sick with a really, really bad cold.  It's almost conquered now!!  I'm such a wimp sometimes!

Another Pretty Kitty Cat!

Okay, this little kitty painting just makes me smile.  Could I have worked on it for weeks more?  Sure thing.  But I resisted!  And I'm happy with it.  Makes me smile - big time!  That's a good thing.  Hope it made you smile, too.

Just a reminder of my daughter's facebook page for us again:  http://facebook.com/larkstudios.
(Oh, a quick note about the facebook name she chose:  Often in error, I would be talking about my daughter and her husband and call them "Lark" by mistake (Lara, and her husband, Mark).  Now, it's become a bit of a family joke, and the collective name has stuck.  They are now Lark - much easier than Lara and Mark, don't you think?  Now, how are we going to include my precious little almost-four-month-old granddaughter's name into the mix?  (Her name is Elena).

Pretty little Yellow Kitten on Black

Okay, change is starting to show with this painting.  It's small, but it's much looser, makes me smile.  Can I keep up this direction?  Or will I head off in another completely different one?  Who knows?  I certainly don't!  We'll see.  Stay tuned.

Again, here's Lara's (my daughter) facebook page for us:
http://facebook.com/larkstudios

"Furball," the Cat

I am sooooo proud of this painting! I was afraid to do cats because I thought they would be really difficult after all the dog paintings I've done - but believe it or not, it was actually easier! Probably because cats (well, this one anyway) have so much hair! Anyway, this cat is a donation for a fundraiser for the Feral Cat Coalition here in Portland - hope it raises lots of money for them. It was a cat I saw sitting on a porch in my neighborhood. I think s/he was enjoying the rare pretty day we were having that day. I'll have prints of it on pendants and earrings; and if you live around Portland, OR, and want to go bid on it, check with them and find out exactly when their auction is going to be - and let me know if you win it, too!

This is "Cat" the cat

Here's a precious cat painting I just finished for a customer, who's giving it to her friend who is mourning the recent loss of "Cat" the cat. She was quite old and very much loved from what I hear. Cat is already SOLD, but prints (or a clock) are available from my website, www.dottiedracos.com. It was a pleasure to be given the honor to paint this memorial painting.