Daily Photo: Measuring Up
Somehow, Bella is always a little disapproving of how things are.
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Photos from previous years…
Mewsette in Greens, and More, 2017
Mewsette is a very contemplative kitty. She likes to find a place to sit and ponder, and after exploring the yard to the length of her leash, she sits down to do just that. I know she’s watching something, probably a bird in a neighbor’s tree, but I always get the feeling she’s having flights of fancy. In any case, she’s lovely.
Below, she’s pretending to be a wild kitty and giving me a skeptical expression, as if I might do something to her. She likes to pretend sometimes too. All the time, she is quiet and gentle and a little bit silly.
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Catching up with Instagram
We’ve been having some lovely days lately, perfect temperatures, sunny, quiet.
Bella is my supurrvisor even when I’m outdoors.
Sunny autumn afternoon to enjoy.
Basil has a nice warm bath at the end of a sunbeam.
The looks I get when I ask if they would wash out their cat food cans and prepare them for recycling so I can get to work.
And something Mimi and I found out front.
Bright as a feather.
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Sweetness X 4, 2014
Their cuddles are legendary, and each is different and special. Sunday night/Monday morning I was up late/early/whatever, framing artwork for submission to a juried show the next day, working on commissions, packing orders, just getting ready for Monday. All Five were upstairs, kittens quiet in the bathroom, and Mimi kept me company while her children slept deeply on my bed.
Mimi and I went into my room where I keep packing materials and the boys were cuddled at the foot of the bed, noses together, Mewsette a distance away in a ball. Though it was late and I wanted to get to bed before the sky grew light, I stopped to photograph their cuddles.
As I quietly, as not to disturb their precious beauty sleep, retrieved the materials I needed, Mewsette got up, stretched and sauntered over to her brothers. It’s one of the things I love about them that there is always room for one more. Though they were tucked tightly together she stepped between Sunshine and Bean and lowered herself down, settling comfortable in between and was greeted and welcomed by a brotherly bath from Sunshine.
A few more minutes of grooming and stretching and sighing and purring and Mewsette was settled in, four black cats in a row, sleeping pressed together in very similar positions, seeming like one.
And their happy sleepy faces all in a row.
I actually wanted to sketch them, but was so occupied with watching them I just couldn’t move to get my materials. I can always do something later.
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The Blue Door, 2013
Generations of cats have posed before The Blue Door—little did I know when I painted it that particular shade to keep the evil spirits away according to lots of traditions that 20 years later I’d still have a blue door with lovely cats posing before it. I also like the way the screen and wire guard cast geometric shadows along with the leaves and their organic shadows.
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Mewsette in Blue, 2012
I always seem to get these moody images of Mewsette on the weekend, deep shadows, non-objective portraits, silhouettes and mirror shadows, and odd colors, but I adore these more abstract images. Mewsette was enjoying the little parallelogram of morning sun by the back door, but I had left my camera on the filter for incandescent light from the night before. Without the yellow of the light, the filter’s blue cast is stronger than any other light, and the white sunlight remains white but the shadows take blue. For other examples of Mewsette see “Mewsette Mixed Whiskers” and “A Moment With Mewsette“.
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Improvised Cat Bed, 2011
Mr. Sunshine curls up in the basket of rags in the corner of my studio. Really, what could be a better bed? They are clean and dried outdoors so they smell fresh, soft from use and made from my old clothing and household stuff that’s very familiar, like the sock that’s hanging out of the side of the basket, and the basket was filled to the top before Mr. Sunshine curled up in it so it’s nice and fluffy. And the basket itself is just the right size for him when he curls in a circle.
And until I came in and turned the lights and radio on it was dim and quiet, but he didn’t even from my activities. I just happened to notice that something in the room wasn’t quite as it should be, and really, a black cat in a room of pretty much all light-colored things shouldn’t be all that hard to find!
I do have cat beds, quite a few, in comfortable places, but they always manage to find alternate sleeping arrangements. Mr. Sunshine is quite inventive and loves my studio. He also loves tools and found one lone dark-colored wood screw on the light wood floor and has been practicing his slap shots by constantly rolling it around on the floor and slapping it against the baseboards and cabinets, then running out onto the landing and announcing his accomplishment in his wonderful sing-song voice, “Mmmmmrrrrrow! Mmmrrrrrrrow row!” Sometimes he gets so excited that he runs all the way down the stairs and through the kitchen with a puffed tail and sings his song out the door to the back yard, then turns around and runs back up and starts it all over again.
This vehement play may have been the need for a convenient nap spot. And I enjoyed the zen of a deeply sleeping cat in my studio while I worked. Then the wood screw hockey began again.
Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals
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Feline Artwork from Portraits of Animals!
So Bella is an avid birdwatcher. She spends long hours by the big north window watching the birds at the feeder. I spend long hours studying her profile while she does so. I decided to finally sketch her and thought of the toned paper with white and black charcoal, and I also added a bit of pale yellow green in her eye. Read more and purchase.
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!
