Daily Featured Artwork: Winter Afternoon, 2015

January 31, 2024January 31, 2024 Bernadette

sketch of four cats sleeping on bed. — “Winter Afternoon”, pastel pencil on black pastel paper, 9.5″ x 6.5″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

NOTE: the URL for this post is https://thecreativecat.net/daily-featured-artwork-winter-afternoon-2015/.*

The inspiration for this sketch was that black cats are easily camouflaged on the old wool afghan, and it made me laugh. Look closely and you’ll see four cats in this sketch. Basil, Bella, Bean and Mewsette spent the entire long, quiet winter afternoon on the wool afghan my mother made in 1946. The light caught each of their coats in different tones and textures: Basil at the top left is very mocha, and in the top right Bella is only shades of blue, while Bean and Mewsette, tucked up against each other and facing opposite directions, are combinations of both colors.

I sketched them from life, as they napped, on January 23, 2015. I had finally put the wool afghan on the bed and they loved to nap on it during the day. It looks like that at night too, but the lights aren’t on to see. They do enjoy sleeping there at any time, but wool is special and they’ve been attached to it for years. Typically I fold it at the bottom of the bed, but on some of these cold and damp days they get back up to the bed before I get a chance to fold it and make the bed, and of course I can’t move them after that!

On the day I sketched this, I walked past several times and looked in on them, photographed them, and decided to finally sketch from life what I visualized. I did have to finish some of the placement of the afghan square colors from a photo because I only had so many fingers to hold pastel pencils. But I’m so happy to catch a scene I see every day. I’ve never left the afghan on the bed all day, but during that particular winter, that particular family of cats collects there nearly every afternoon, and I will always remember that.

Hint: to find the cats, look for curved lines and ears.

~~~

*A reader let me know that the link to “read more” in my posts sent in email does not work, and I discovered it hasn’t for quite some time. I’m providing a link at the top of each post that will show in the excerpt for now.

Where to find this artwork

The original sketch is available, prints are available on paper and canvas, and one of these days I’ll figure out a few gift items to add it to. You can find it here on Portraits of Animals.

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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.