Daily Photo: A Little Purrformance
Mariposa enjoys a Tabby Tuesday in the sun, showing off all her best assets. Honestly, she is such a happy meowdel (“model” in Instagramspeak), all I need to do is point the camera and she does the rest. How sad was her life in the abandoned house where no humans were around to recognize her talents? How many other eartipped stars remain to be discovered? More reasons to rescue cats!
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From Instagram
Sun from the front, heater vent from the back, Sienna found a great way to enjoy a cool but sunny morning.
Those forsythia branches that were bare just four days ago fully opened between yesterday and today. Outside the buds are still tightly closed. Mewsette decided to taste a sampling of flowers in cele-purr-ation.
From the back yard and beyond.
Following a busy bee enjoying lunch of crocus pollen al fresco. Pretty spring-blooming bulbs do more than get us humans excited about spring–they feed some sleepy bees looking for a meal.
From around this date in past years
Trouble in Paradise, 2020
Uh oh, trouble in paradise. Brotherly studio wrestling, Basil and Mimi have front row seats.
I love it when these two wrestle. Giuseppe and Jelly Bean have been at it since they were born. What I find amusing is that just seconds before they were curled up in their basket. And they didn’t even need to be because there was an open basket one of them could have used. I can always see it coming and know it’s just play. In a few minutes they were settling back down again.
Looks like this date is an extra good day for the yellow basket, guessing by the photos below.
Photos from around this date in previous years
My Basket Overfloweth, 2019
I don’t know how Giuseppe manages to do it but he always does. His brothers were happily sleeping side by side in the basket when Giuseppe decided he just had to be in there with them. They didn’t particularly want this. He got into the basket, stepped all over them, and ended up on top of both of them, facing the opposite direction from them, and he looks really pleased with himself.
Sometimes these invasions turn into slap fests, but in this case they all slept happily ever after.
From Facebook
Don’t believe everything you read. This is not 100% orange juice, it’s 100% Hamlet in the world’s best napping box. I taped the corners after months of naps, I hope it holds.
Photos from years past.
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Basil and Geranium, 2018
>Basil and the geranium enjoying the morning sun and sharing each others’ curves.
As I came up the steps and saw Basil looking so gorgeous in the sun, as if he was actually posing by the geranium, I had only my cell phone. To run to get the DSLR would break the mood, so I decided to get what I could and then run for the other camera if Basil was still being gorgeous. I took several photos as he looked out the window and up and down, as Basil does. Then Giuseppe jumped up there because Basil was getting attention and he was not. Done.
I had filtered the original photo in Instagram and posted it there on February 28. I refiltered it in Photoshop and I quite like it, although…it could be a painting someday.
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The Creative Cat has been having structural problems for the past two months, something that’s most noticeable on the home page, which doesn’t build all the way down to the footer and doesn’t have the right sidebar. I’ve done everything I can think of, and working my way around re-installing the theme because of rebuilding so much of what’s here afterward. While the structural problems exist, everything takes extra time to happen—to open the blog, to go to the dashboard, to start a new post, to add photos…Diagnosing the issue is worth the time, so I take the time, but I still haven’t found the problem. Last week I tried a few other things to no avail. I think I’m going to have to call a professional (for me or the site?). I did miss posting a few days, and even more than that missed the daily photos and daily sketches! I hope this is resolved soon because it’s killing me to sit here for so long troubleshooting and working it over and getting nothing done! So enjoy the photos I shared on Instagram last week.
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I was also participating in another painting challenge, after the cat show was over and I’d put things away. But I think my cats get tired of me staying up late, and I was to get the paintings done. So they had an intervention.
No new painting today. See that spot where all the cats are? That’s where my drawing paper would be, but they decided I needed to do something else, like pet them, and get to bed at a normal time. I always listen to my cats. Well, mostly.
You can see the six paintings I completed in this post on Portraits of Animals.
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Then there was this. Six black cats in a semi-circle on the bed…what to think?!
A communal nap…or a secret meeting of some sort? Counterclockwise from the top: Hamlet, Basil, Jelly Bean, Sunshine, Giuseppe, Mewsette.
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Longhairs, 2017
Basil and Hamlet inhabit my desk. Obviously, I can’t work with all that hair all over my desk and keyboard. Basil is actually medium-haired, though he has a nice ruff and tail in winter. Hamlet, on the other hand, is quite long-haired with a magnificent tail. The two hang out pretty frequently. I was honored by their supervisory visit of my evening work.
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What other photos have I shared on or around this date?
Daily Photo: I Want to Be an Art Cat
“I want to be an art cat.”
Really, Hamlet presumes he is my next model. He gave me four wonderful poses on the windowsill, this is the nicest.
He is still not comfortable with me unless he is inside the bathroom with the door closed, and even then not all the time. Hamlet jumps up on my drafting table right past my elbow, and ignores me, not making eye contact or responding to anything I say. I see him softening a bit though, as he did today when he moved to that corner, settled himself down facing me, and calmly looked at me. He is trying very hard, and this is not easy for him, but he will do it, he has decided. I will be patient.
Cats have always liked my studio, and I think that’s why it was always a successful foster room. It has a different energy than the rest of the house. It’s my happy room, it’s dynamic and the cats sense my happiness and enjoy it.
Ophelia is more comfortable and welcomes petting, but she too mostly avoids me when she’s out in the upstairs. My second floor is not that big, it’s 15′ x 22′ with a notch taken out for the steps, but it must seem vast to those two. They ran right into the bedroom for the first two weeks, didn’t even look in the studio doorway. Then Hamlet decided to bravely go in there and sit down.
I have been without my flower essences since last fall. They are kind of expensive and I needed to pay for other things instead, and I remembered that I’ve fostered and socialized cats for decades without them. And then I remembered how Bert and Ernie reacted, and Alvina, Simon and Theodore, and even Hamlet and Ophelia at first, and decided tonight to order two. I hope I can help them ease into socialization with more confidence.
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From Facebook and Instagram
So nice. Mimi has a good stretch in warm afternoon sun, on the way out to the yard.
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Caturday Art Photo: Portrait of Bean, 2014
Bean shows his profile. Not always the silly boy.
Bean quietly contemplated the sunny landscape outside the second-story window, looking here and there, looking at me and looking at the ceiling, as I took photos of each move. I decided to try out the photo filters built in to my Smartphone as I did. I usually like to take a photo without any features and play with it in Photoshop so that it’s as flexible as can be, and while most of the filters are pretty bad (oil pastel? really? did the designer of that filter ever see an oil pastel let alone a drawing?) “Vignette” works well, which is what I’ve used on Bean. All of them can be done better in Photoshop, but the other filter I like is “Tint” which adds areas of soft red, yellow and turquoise areas to a photo. I can only use one filter at a time on this phone and I happened to take this photo with Vignette, so I manually brushed in similar colors and then changed the contrast a bit.
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Daily Photo: Bella’s Morning Sunbath
Bella sat in the sun by the back door watching all the activity but quickly became drowsy with the sun filling her fur. Black fur absorbs light and heat, and Bella fairly glows with contentment.
There’s a white enamel tray on the other side that is reflecting sunlight onto what would be her shadowed side. Instead it highlights her should and legs and the side of her face with cool light, contrasting with the warm light from the sun.
I initially thought I’d like it in black and white because of the subtleties, but better than that I liked all the tones in her fur, the sable, mocha, sky blue, violet, and all the other tones between.
Then I just wanted to focus on her face.
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From Facebook and Instagram
Undecided, contemplating each direction, front and back, left and right.
“I killed this blue fish.” Hamlet then proceeded to eviscerate it as he does with all the toys. This fish was pretty malnourished, but he did find a pinch of catnip.
Tucking into their baskets for a night of work in the studio. Four stages of sleep: Jelly Bean, sitting up considering a pre-nap bath; Basil, reclining, sleepily holding one eye open to see what I’m doing; Sunshine, engaged in early, light sleep; Mimi, fully engaged, featureless black lump in basket.
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Other daily photos shared on this date
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Le Matin Bleu, 2015
I believe it is Bella looking sculptural as a silhouette and graceful as an elongated shadow among all the geometric shapes and shadows of my kitchen in the morning.
The blue is because I left the incandescent light filter on in my DSLR, and this is what it does to natural daylight. I actually quite like it as a technique. I like monochromatic photos and duotones, which is technically what this is, black in the shadows and with all other colors tending in shades of blue.
Pourquoi Français? Because I already have a post or two entitled “Blue Morning”, and Mimi, Mewsette and I all have French names. Because, why not?
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From Facebook: Five on the Afghan
Like you don’t already get enough daily photos from me…but I’ve been remiss in this. Occasionally I share a photo on Facebook directly from my smartphone, no blog post or anything, just because I want to share what the house panthers are doing right at that moment. I know that many readers are not on Facebook so I’ve been intending to share them in my daily photo posts on these days, and by the time evening rolls around I’ve forgotten. I’ll catch up on a few I’ve shared already, but I will do my best to remember after this one.
Five of the house panthers were toasty and purring on the afghan on this cold, cold day, sleeping in a semi-circle. They were so relaxed and it looks so cheery I had to share.
“A semi – circle of warm and purring kitties on a wool afghan on a cold and snowy day. That space could be for me. Tempting!”
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Wordless Wednesday: Fresh Air!, 2014
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Four Cats on a Cloud, 2014
Clockwise from about 7:00, Mimi, Sunshine, Mewsette and Bean all crowd themselves on the “cloud bed”, the old fleece kitty beanbag bed that’s filled with snips of upholstery foam. I had put it away when they tired of it a couple of years ago and recently brought it back out and washed and aired it. It is, for now, a cat magnet. There have been no cats on my desk because, well, there they are. I have even been nearly alone in my studio and, strangest of all, in my bed, because of the novelty of this cloud.
Typically three of them share it, Mr. Sunshine, who thinks it belongs to him, Mewsette and Bean. Mimi joined them today, and has ended up at the bottom of the pile. I haven’t yet had all five on this thing, and lest it look as if there is no way they could all fit, there is always room on top. Only Giuseppe is missing—he was posted on Mousewatch in the kitchen, one of the cabinet doors under the sink slightly open so he could peer inside.
I bought this bed at a yard sale in the late 90s just because I couldn’t pass it up, even though my cats have never been big on beds—they tire of them easily and I’m stuck with big foam constructions that take up space and aren’t used, when all I need to do is fold a blanket and set it down and immediately it’s covered in cats, or begin to work at any desk or worktable. Or just sit down and I’m covered in cats. They do tire of this one, but it has a fond memory. The day I brought it in the house and dropped it on the floor until I decided what to do with it Kelly saw it, her eyes grew even larger and rounder than usual, and she began talking about the new bed in the house, cautiously walked over to it, sniffed and circled it, then stepped onto it, and it was hers. Until Moses discovered it, and since we all knew Moses was incredibly special Kelly was honored to let Moses have the bed.
So was I because Moses had taken to sleeping under my desk chair—formerly feral, a little uncertain, she loved me but wanted to feel safe, so under my chair felt good to her but I could not move for fear of running over her. Moses climbed on the bed with Kelly one day and I inched it closer to my desk so it wasn’t in the middle of the floor. Kelly gave up her claim and the cloud bed stayed next to my desk chair downstairs until after Moses died in 2006. I still remember looking down at her and seeing her blink up at me, tap her tail and purr a little harder.
Kelly used it again after that in the winters, but it’s been away since she’s been gone. I have found no photos of either of them using it, but I’m sure they are somewhere. Seeing it there is probably one of the reasons I decided to share Kelly’s story today, since her attachment to the bed was fairly early in her time here. For me, it’s not just the joy of seeing four black cats all tucked together and purring on their section of the cloud, it’s also the memories that are tucked into the cloud itself.
Plus, they inspired today’s sketch, which I’ll post a little later this evening.
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“Really, That’s Very Interesting.”, 2013
I get the idea she’s being polite and just wants to enjoy her sunbath. But she’s awfully cute.
Possibly a photo for the 2014 Compositions in Black and Green calendar? Read more below.
AND…pawprints in the snow on my desk on the deck—and they are not Mimi’s! Who has been visiting?
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I Could “Daily Sketch” You, 2013
Mimi looks at my pastel pencils, then at me.
“I wonder how you’d look if I sketched you in blue, or purple or pink,” Mimi says. “I just might give it a try.”
Guess I pushed the non-representational colors too far for someone. she didn’t follow through with her threat, and I’m kind of glad. I mean, it would be totally cool to have a kitty who could draw, but I’m not sure I’d like how I look. Perhaps that was her point, too.
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Why Are We Here? 2012
Giuseppe, do you think there’s a reason why we’re here?
You mean, like, on this table? We sit here every morning…
No, stupid, a reason why we’re…like, on this planet, maybe in this country or here, in this house, with Mama Bernadette?
Where else would we be?
Well, there are cats everywhere. We could be somewhere else instead of here.
We’ve never been anywhere else.* What would make you think we could be anywhere else? We’re like a part of here.
No, Mama Mimi was somewhere else before, and she was there, she was a part of that place, until she came here.
Okay.
And she was somewhere even before that, a few somewheres—those people took her from the big building she told us about with all the other cats—and dogs and rabbits and other things—and before that she was in a house with some people with her mama.
So…?
So why is she here now, and why didn’t we move around like she did?
Jelly Bean, I don’t understand.
Don’t you think about these things?
No, we’re here, why worry?
Do you remember Fromage?
Sure, I remember our little foster sister.
She was lost and all alone. How did that happen? And how did she get to be here?
Mama Bernadette’s friend the tall lady brought her one morning, and then she came and took her away after we taught her how to be a cat. I think that’s where she lives now. There’s no mystery about that. We saw it all happen.
Imagine what life would be like if we were out there [gesturing out the window behind them] somewhere like Fromage. How would we get to where we are supposed to be?
Well, Jelly Bean, I wonder sometimes why I’m here and Mlle. is in Kingston if we’re supposed to be together.
See? I’m trying to put it all together, and I just can’t figure out why we’re here.
Boys, what are you up to? You look like you’re hatching a sort of a plan, or you’re in some deep metaphysical discussion…
Do you suppose Mama Bernadette thinks about these things?
I’m sure she does. I think I need a nap.
*Actually, they were in “the other house” for their first three days, they just don’t remember. I didn’t want to try to explain.
A few other posts showing the boys at their stuff on the table in the morning:
Wordless Wednesday: Aw, Little Brother
Daily Photo Reprise: That Does It! 2011
Daily Photo Reprise: I Knight Thee…2011
I’ll Give You Three Seconds to Get Your Paw Off of Me…
And other cat conversations…sometimes with me, sometimes with each other.
Click the title or the photo to go to the original post.
The Telltale Paws, 2013
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Thank You, Mewsette, 2013
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On the Prowl, 2012
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Like a Salad With Your Salmon and Turkey? 2011
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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
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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!
Awww, such a cutie!