Friday, March 29, 2024
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August Featured Artwork and Desktop Calendar: “Three Blue Cats”

"Three Blue Cats", brush marker, 9" x 6.5" © Bernadette E. Kazmarski
“Three Blue Cats”, brush marker, 9″ x 6.5″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

For some reason, this sketch has always been a favorite, and it’s actually been in the running as a monthly desktop calendar for a while. Finally, it’s time! The bright colors feel right with August sun and sky, the loose lines a feeling of freedom. For me, it is a summer morning.

As a sketch I like the figures, not exact, even a little abstract, but clearly recognizable as cats being cats. And the colors—aside from what they were actually inspired by, they are just a nice combination. It was part of the freedom I found with these brush marker sketches, letting the lines flow, and then adding whatever colors I wanted so my black cats could be any color in the world.

Here’s what I had to say from 2013:

The same three as today’s photo at a different time, but that blue with the morning sunshine was so inspiring to me. I caught them while they were still getting settled, quickly outlined each one individually when they stopped moving for at least ten seconds. When I draw with these brush markers I always feel the variable line quality helps describe their activity.

Too bad for my laundry. Sketch had to be done.

Apparently I did a sketch that morning instead of laundry. I don’t think that’s too bad of a trade! I don’t remember if I did laundry or not, but I do remember creating this sketch—it’s still here, but I’ll bet anything any clean laundry didn’t last very long.

This was done in brush marker before I had the brush pen. I’d been practicing with the brush marker for a while and was in the middle of a number of sketches like this, and perhaps I hit a good point of confidence after all the practice because I do like the line quality—it’s the reason I  bought the brush pen and started sketching with it pretty regularly. Prior to this I’d used a crow quill pen nip on a dip-style pen to achieve this, and I still love that technique, but it’s not as easy to use for quick sketches from life with the need to set up the pen and have a place to set a bottle of ink where a curious paw won’t go exploring.

This is drawn and colored with my brush markers in one of my favorite styles, often compared with Andy Warhol’s style for his series of cats, so I call these my Warhol Cats. Click the link to see more cats in this style.

Here’s the photo I referenced above:

At the basement door.
At the basement door.

The morning was chilly but we opened the basement door to get a good whiff of it, and to watch the birds fly around, criss-crossing shadows on the door. It was all very exciting, especially the moment a bird landed right outside the door and just sat there.

It’s Mewsette and Jelly Bean and Giuseppe, and this has long been one of my favorite views of my cats, happily engaged in a typical feline activity.

There’s another clue to the colors—the yellow is obviously the sun coming in the door, but the blue…it’s both the bluish shadows on them when I see them from behind as they look out the door, and also the door itself, that wonderful Mediterranean blue I painted the door years ago, to keep the evil spirits out, you know. As far as I know, no evil spirits have come in that door, and 20 years later the color still makes me smile. All my cats have looked beautiful in front of that blue door. It carries many memories, and that’s probably why, on that particular morning, I chose the closest shade of blue to the door to color Mewsette, Jelly Bean and Giuseppe.

. . . . . . .

Where to find this art

Three Blue Cats mousepad
Three Blue Cats mousepad

The original is still available for purchase framed or unframed as well as prints in various sizes and styles in my Etsy shop.

I also offer it as mouse pad, bright and cheery, and it looks wonderful on a canvas—the 11 x 14 looks like an abstract painting.


This month’s desktop calendar

I’ve worked this image into a desktop calendar for you to enjoy and use for the entire month. Looking at the downloads from previous months and averaging out which dimensions fit which devices, I have reduced the number of variations from 12 to three. It was very time-consuming to create all the variations with new devices arriving all the time, so I have one for horizontal monitors/screens, one for square monitors/screens, and one that should fit the dimensions of nearly all mobile devices.

If these sizes don’t work for your device, or if you have problems, please let me know. Often I can troubleshoot the reason an image won’t download or won’t load on your device, but if I just can’t figure it out I can just email it to you and hope that works.

 

How to download and use your desktop calendar

  1. Click on one of the images below that matches the dimensions of your monitor to open the image in a new page.
  2. For desktop computers and laptops, right-click on that image and on a desktop computer choose “save as desktop wallpaper” or “save as background” or whichever option your operating system gives you to be able to do this. You may also simply save it to your hard drive and set it as your background from there.
  3. For mobile devices, download the image to your gallery then choose it as your wallpaper—this is slightly different on all devices.

Horizontal and HD monitors and screens

"Three Blue Cats" desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.
“Three Blue Cats” desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.

. . .

Square monitors and screens

"Three Blue Cats" desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors.
“Three Blue Cats” desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors.

. . .

Small Mobile Devices and Tablets

Click here to subscribe to The Creative Cat on your Kindle.

"Three Blue Cats" desktop calendar, for 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers.
“Three Blue Cats” desktop calendar, for 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers.

. . .

Cell Phones and Smartphones

"Three Blue Cats" desktop calendar, for 400 x 712 for mobile phones and Smartphones.
“Three Blue Cats” desktop calendar, for 400 x 712 for mobile phones and Smartphones.

Take a look at other featured artwork and desktop calendar posts.

Each month I feature a piece of feline artwork from the archives to the present day, discuss its history and process, and set it up as a free downloadable desktop calendar for just about every electronic device available.


Click here to see daily sketches, click here to see daily photographs

click here to see other artwork featured on The Creative Cat

or visit Fine Art and Portraiture on my main website.

If you are interested in a print of this image, check my Etsy shop to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.


Subscribe to my e-newsletter

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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.


© 2015 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

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Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

One thought on “August Featured Artwork and Desktop Calendar: “Three Blue Cats”

  • I can see why it is a favorite 🙂 I love blue and cats- a great combination. I have a blue Warhol kitty purse 🙂

    Reply

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