August Featured Artwork and Desktop Calendar: “Three Warm Cats on a Cool Ground”
This particular month we are more than halfway through, and my time has been scattered to say the least. I put my calendars together near the beginning of the month, but I inched along with the process of posting them. I decided, rather than not posting new ones this month, to go ahead and post late, but better than never. I hope to get a grip on my time while doing weekend events sometime soon, but for now, here’s where I am.
The choice is difficult for which artwork to feature and use for the desktop calendar—not because I have no ideas, but because I have so many possibilities! I wanted something to reflect the heat and sun of August, colorful and active for all the vacations and events that come about before we go back to school and settle down for autumn. I also like to feature a variety of media and styles, a subject that coordinates with the month or season, even a work that was created at that particular time, colors that make me think of the month when I look at it, and it’s all got to fit on four different sizes and dimensions of electronic devices. I also want to choose something that you’ll want to look at for a month, that works well on devices in terms of color and type, and have the overall impression of it look and feel different each month so you don’t feel you’re looking at the same thing all the time.
I featured this artwork in August 2014, but I’ve found myself thinking of it lately and looking it up, so that I could just look at it and enjoy all the things I like about it. I decided I’d feature it again, seven years later.
So “Three Warm Cats on a Cool Ground” is my feature this month. Here’s what I had to say the day I painted it.
Where do these visual inspirations come from? Giuseppe, Mr. Sunshine and Mewsette were enjoying the view as I rode my exercise bicycle, having plenty of time to watch them and the light and visualize this composition. I wanted lots of mixed colors, but muted, indefinite edges, but the sketch in black on top of all the pastel. The light comes in the door and fills the space among them, then fades to shadows behind. I had sketchbook and basic pastels to block in the shapes and areas, then finished it later from a photo. Mostly, I had a really strong visual that stayed with me as I played fingerpaints with my pastels on the paper.
As I watched them and began visualizing, I also envisioned the style of another artist. See if you can guess who I mean before you click here to see this painting and especially this painting.
When I look at them in that spot, morning or afternoon, the painted gray floor is always cool in color though being gray it captures many ambient colors from the sky and the outdoors. The black cats’ fur reflects warm and I see many brown tones. I began with those and let my mind enhance them as I pedaled my bike, using the built-in Photoshop filters in my brain, watching the big pool of light among them, determining which postures I wanted each of them to be in to make a good composition. I both blended the pastels and then painted them on top of what I’d blended for a variety of textures, for full color and muted color, to capture the changing shadows reflected from the sky and trees outdoors. And then, I just did what I felt like doing, adding colors intuitively in shapes that just came to mind. Finally, I sketched their outlines in black pastel atop it all. Unfortunately when I scanned it the pink and purple dusted off onto the cooler areas, but that’s kind of okay.
Why does this reflect August? It was painted just over the edge into September, on September 2, 2013, when it was still plenty hot and feeling like summer. The way the floor turned out, all that turquoise with flashes of darker blue and yellow, made me think of pool water, cool and gently lapping. The red violet, purple, orange and yellow are the colors of summer, flowers and beach umbrellas, bathing suits and pool toys. So as summer winds down, we can enjoy the bright colors, tempered by the muted colors of coming autumn as the season begins to change.
Where to find this artwork
A New Member Thank You
Register for an account on Portraits of Animals and get a free matted print of “Three Warm Cats on a Cool Ground” or choose from several other sketches, paintings or photos of cats and other subjects.
The New Member print is a signed digital print of my marker sketch “Three Warm Cats on a Cool Ground”. Prints are made in archival inks on Epson Silky Photo Paper. This print is 8″ x 11″ and matted to fit an 11″ x 14″ frame.
This print is only available as a new member gift during this month while it’s the featured artwork and desktop calendar, so make sure you sign up before the end of the month!
Or purchase another size print or greeting card
The original sketch is sold, but you can choose another style or size of print of “Three Warm Cats on a Cool Ground” on the product listing. I offer prints as:
- digital prints on matte-finish art paper
- giclees on art paper
- on canvas in standard sizes
- as framed prints, as shown, and custom framing is available
You may soon find this image on several gift items
You can find this art and more on Portraits of Animals. Search “Three Warm Cats on a Cool Ground” to find what’s currently available.
This month’s desktop calendar
I’ve worked this image into a desktop calendar for you to enjoy and use for the entire month.
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
- Click on one of the images below that matches the dimensions of your monitor to open the image in a new page.
- 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.
- 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
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Square monitors and screens
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Small Mobile Devices and Tablets
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Cell 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 Feline Artwork on my main website.
If you are interested in a print of this image, check Portraits of Animals 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.
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Copyright
All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals 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.
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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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That is beautiful.
Thank you, Ellen!
Love the color in this art!
Thank you! It’s fun chasing the idea.