Friday, March 29, 2024
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Daily Photo: Who’s the Most Bella of Them All?

black cat looking in mirror
Mirror, mirror…

Well, it’s our Bella of course!

. . . . . . .

Emeraude and Her Windowsill, 2013
black cat with feather
Emeraude inspects a dove feather.

Emeraude inspects a feather from a dove I set on the windowsill for her. Her curiosity and playfulness never cease to amaze me, and I enjoy taking things to her to find out her opinion. She loves her catnip toys, indulging without any need for encouragement, and enjoys airborne toys as well, like feathers and heavy ribbons. When she started chasing the little disk of light on the floor and wall cast by the lens of my camera—much to my dismay at that moment since I was trying to focus on an extreme closeup (which I eventually did get as it is the photo above)—I have to hand it to an older kitty. She can’t hear much at all, but her vision is fine.

She takes great pleasure in telling the boys where to go when they try to act as if coming in and eating out of her bowl is normal, but when her bowl is put away she is pretty much fine with them all, though she keeps to the bathroom nearly all the time now that it’s cooler and the kids are heading upstairs to nap on my bed.

Below she intently watches a dove wandering around on the deck roof, hence the gift of a feather.

black cat on windowsill
Emeraude stalks a dove from the windowsill.

. . . . . . .

Beautiful Morning, 2012
textured photo of two cats in sun
Beautiful Morning Bath.

I knew I wouldn’t have a chance for a sketch today, but if I had it would have been this one, those lovely colors and shadows from morning sun as Mewsette sat behind Jelly Bean and gave him a bath, casting their shadows together onto the wooden floor. It was a nice photo too, but to suffice I took the nice photo and applied a few art filters to it to make it look more like a loose sketch, so we have a photo that has been made to look like a sketch.

I use Photoshop filters all the time, but I’m always disappointed by the art filters because I don’t feel they really do the intended medium justice. Beyond that, I don’t expect a computer to make the same aesthetic decisions about color and technique as I do, so when I do use them I often use a series of filters and even pull out sections of the original photo to place back in, unfiltered. The algorithms that determine the filters tend to break up the image into small or large sections depending on your settings, and layering filters tends to break up or soften the edges, letting them blend. But if you compare this to some of my sketches, for instance, you’ll see it’s the variety of textures and the mix of small and large sections of color and pattern and the addition of final highlights or even fine detail that become focal points and give the painting a reference point.

In this case I used “Underpainting”, then did a “Dry Brush”, then a “Rough Pastels”. But in the process tiny details like Bean’s eyebrow whiskers are always lost, but they are such an important detail to maintain. If this had been a real painting, I would have left them for very last, as finishing touch. And so I did here, having copied that area out of the original photo, then pasting it back in place on top of everything with a little bit of canvas texture. But I still want to paint this one.

. . . . . . .

No Box Too Small, 2011
two black cats curled together
Mewsette and Jelly Bean in the endless black cat loop.

Mewsette and Jelly Bean curl in an endless circle of black cat.

If you look really closely in the lower right under Jelly Bean’s shoulder, you’ll see a tiny little bit of a small flat box. This is all it takes for one or more kitties to curl up in a spot on the floor.

I wondered why this spot was chosen for communal bathing and napping, considering it’s right in the narrow spot between cabinet and shelves in the kitchen where I either go out the back door or down the basement steps. It wasn’t sunny and warm, there was no warm spot there, I could find no reason for this until JB curled a little closer to Mewsette and realized it was the little flat box left over from a half-case of 3 oz. cat food cans, sized something like 10″ x 12″ x 1″ deep. Not either one of them alone would fit there, but that’s nothing to worry about.

. . . . . . .

The New, Blue Kitty, 2010

We have a kitty who is new,

black cat with blue wooden kitty
Jelly Bean tries to outstare the Blue Kitty.

We have a kitty who is blue,

black cat with blue kitty figurine
Giuseppe smells the Blue Kitty.

None of us knows what to do

black cat with blue kitty figurine
Mewsette tastes the Blue Kitty.

With this strange kitty who is new and blue.

black cat with blue kitty figurine
Mr. Sunshine decides to sleep on the issue, near the Blue Kitty.

You’ve no doubt seen the Blue Kitty in the background of a lot of photos!
This is how it came to be, along with this collaborative creative effort between me and the Fantastic Four.

I have such talented children.

Mom brought home this strange new kitty yesterday, and we just can’t seem to figure it out. We’ve tried everything we can think of to get it to talk to us, but it just doesn’t even move. We’ve decided to ignore it from now on and see if that does anything.

I picked this up at the second hand store when I purchased baskets and other small items for my shop. At first I passed it up thinking it was a little tacky, but then I decided that I could use it. Why not? Who knew when I’d need a feline silhouette to add to a gift basket or give to someone or just add to my shop’s interest. Then I thought I might remove the ribbon and paint it solid black and letter “Black Cats Welcome Here” on its belly. Then I thought I might leave one side black and speckle the other side with black, orange, white, gray and peach, and letter “Tri-color Cats are Mutants” on that side.

But really, I wanted to get at least one photo of one of my kitties with the blue kitty. Little did I know the Big Four would visit the new kitty through the day! Or do they really read my mind…


Browse some rescued cats and kittens—browse here or visit PittsburghCAT!

cats and kittens
Gallery view of Pittsburgh CAT cats for adoption.

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop 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.


© 2014 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

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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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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

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