Daily Featured Artwork: Three Inspirations From February 2014

February 21, 2026 Bernadette

black cat on colorufl afghan — “Mewsette on the Afghan”, markers , 6″ x 7″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

In working on photos for “Friday Four and More” I found a week full of group photos—six days in a row! That was one of the rare times it was just the five of them and me, and all of them settling around me as a group no matter where I was in the house or what I was doing.

I’ll share those six days of images in “Friday Four and More” coming up next, but I also found the reference photos for two of my favorite daily sketches from that time and one other that I did a few weeks later. I thought I’d share the three of them in one post with their reference photos and some additional commentary. They were always such an inspiration, but this week in February 2014 was really overwhelming. I don’t know how I got through it! I hope you enjoy, starting with “Mewsette on the Afghan.”

I still love this sketch! And as I make more and more gift items Mewsette and the colorful afghan are a popular theme.

Mewsette nearly blends in with the afghan.

I’ll admit, this took a little longer than the usual 15 minutes maximum. I’ve been holding off the sketches with this afghan just because I knew they’d be time-consuming for part of the charm is the detail of all the colors. Today I could not pass up pretty Mewsette quietly napping on the afghan, especially when she opened her big yellow eyes. I drew the basic sketch in black, then later filled in the colors with every marker I have in the house. This afghan is more muted than this sketch shows, but I like the bright colors that I remember.

I love that old afghan. My mother crocheted it years ago from a 1944 pattern book (I actually found the pattern book!) out of scraps of wool yarn. Each granny square is made of four rows, each a different color, with one last row of black; when the squares are sewn together there are two rows of black between each color set which gives it this stained-glass effect.

Here are a couple of my reference photos that inspired this sketch on the day I sketched it. I see Mewsette has one front paw out but I remember when I began she didn’t and I liked her smooth shape, but debated adding the paw, which I didn’t. Sometimes those little discussions I had with myself while I’m working on an image occur to me today when I look at it. Also, a photo of the afghan for color reference since I added the color later in my studio. I didn’t sketch all the little crochet clusters, though I considered it.

Mewsette actually on the afghan as I sketched her.

I wanted to see what it would look like without the white edges, and I think I like it this way too.

black cat on colorful afghan — “Mewsette on the Afghan”, cropped.

2024: Even though this sketch looks like it belongs in the holidays, February 7 is actually the date I sketched it in 2014. And I shared that photo of Mr. Max on the afghan for my Tuesday post and then decided to share this art today, and maybe it’s all too much of a coincidence.

But really, I will share Mewsette any chance I get. I miss her so much.

Where to find this artwork

Here is Mewsette on a tile! She sells out pretty quickly, so the next time I make them I’ll make several of Mewsette.

You can find this artwork printed on paper and canvas in various sizes, giclee as well as digital prints, and I have or can make a laminated placemat, keepsake box, gift box and gift bag, and maybe a few more things I’m dreaming up, on Portraits of Animals. To find other products and handmade goods bearing this art, search my website for the title.

Magic Carpet

inkand watercolor sketch of two cats — “Magic Carpet”, ink and watercolor, 6″ x 9″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Giuseppe gives Mr. Sunshine a brotherly bath in a warm and cozy bathroom.

I loved the way they looked on that red rug and visualized a simple line sketch with the brush pen, but with color added. Although the bathroom is white and mint green I still pictured a warm yellow gold background around the red carpet, and keeping with the warm earth tones, the boys in brown. I wanted pretty nearly flat colors, just a little bit of intentional shading and variation, influenced, I think, by some art I’d been recently browsing, traditional, ancient art using natural colors, and modern homage to this style. This is pretty much what I visualized.

Here are a few other photos I took as they made their moves. Sometimes I see a pose and that’s the one I want to paint or sketch. Sometimes I like the setting but the cat or cats are moving and changing so take photos of their variations then decide which one I want to work on.

Mr. Sunshine looked it over and seems a little skeptical. “You used that yellow because it matches my eyes.” Okay, Sunshine, maybe I did choose that sunshiny yellow because it’s darned close to the color of your eyes. But we didn’t notice that until this morning.

I'm not sure what he thinks of it. — I’m not sure what he thinks of it.

black cat with artwork — Mr. Sunshine appraises my painting.

I like this style, the black outlines, the yellow background, lots of red, so much I’ve used it a couple of other times since this sketch, as in “The Zen of Basket, After Toulouse-Lautrec”, and even “Listening to Granados, de Falla and Rodrigo“.

Where to find this artwork

I haven’t used this image for any gift items, but the original is still available and I do have prints of it and it will probably be in one of the sets of note cards I design this year, most likely including the two paintings I mentioned above. Visit the product post on Portraits of Animals.

Mom’s Chasing My Tail

pastel sketch of one cat chasing anothers' tail — “Mom’s Chasing My Tail”, gray pastel, 10″ x 7″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Mimi really is chasing Giuseppe’s tail, and she does it on a regular basis. Poor Giuseppe, he doesn’t know what to do with the situation—if it was one of his siblings he’d give them a smack, but his mom? He can’t hit his mom. She knows this too, and mercilessly pins down the tip of his tail with all her claws extended while Giuseppe helplessly watches.

Of course, he could actually control his tail but instead lashes it back and forth on the carpet most enticingly, to his mom at least.

Sometimes Mimi gets in the mood to chase Giuseppe’s whole body, not just his tail, and that is a comedy to see. No video yet. This sketch was originally a photo, but they were all just a little blurry or one of them was cut off so I did a quick sketch of what looked like Mimi’s funniest move and worked from a photo later.

Poor Giuseppe. She’s nearly half his size! Here’s the reference photo.

Mimi chasing Giuseppe's tail. — Mimi chasing Giuseppe’s tail.

This sketch is dated March 7, 2014 though I took the photo on February 12. Once every week or two I’d work from a prior photo, as I did here a month after I’d taken it. There were days like this particular week when I had so many inspirations I couldn’t sketch them all, even if I decided to do more than one sketch per day. I really didn’t have the time for two, and I really wanted to keep with the daily format because I change with each day and so does the way I see things and what inspires me. Often I’d mark a photo that I’d want to work with later, or I’d come to a day when none of my ideas for a sketch had worked out or I’d been out all day and I went looking for another in my photos.

Either way, they were a daily inspiration for me.

This sketch isn’t listed anywhere, but if you are interested please contact me.

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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.