Monday, March 18, 2024
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Featured Artwork and July Desktop Calendar: Sunshine With Colors

oil pastel sketch of cat
Sunshine With Colors, 5″ x 7″, oil pastel © B.E. Kazmarski

Now that I know more about Mr. Sunshine’s immediate future, I decided to feature Sunshine again in this month’s desktop calendar with another favorite sketch. Of all the sketches in the Cats After van Gogh series, I think in this sketch of Mr. Sunshine I used the color ranges to their fullest, and also managed a lot of impasto, layers, texture, throughout. It’s just a tiny sketch, 5″ x 6″, as I captured morning light from two angles, warm and cool, and all its influence on Mr. Sunshine’s densely black fur, the stool he sat on and the dishtowel beneath him.

Oddly enough, this sketch was not one of my favorites in the set at first. I felt I’d pushed the theme and technique too far and it was a little pretentious and overdone, a little too primary/secondary colorsy. But don’t worry, you don’t need to try to make me feel better and tell me there’s nothing wrong with it. In the decades I’ve been creating artwork I’ve learned to listen to these critiques and let myself stay with them but not consider them permanent. I’ve reassessed many a sketch and painting after I’ve put it away for a few days or years and wondered what the heck I was thinking when I thought it was overdone and out of character—because I had finally caught up with what had been in my subconscious. Remember this: our creative minds are forever expanding if we encourage them, and often far outpace our logical reality, functioning below our conscious thoughts and just proceeding to use what we haven’t realized we’ve learned yet.

As always, I have my cats to thank for much of my progress as an artist, just by being here to awaken something in me.

From 2012 when I posted it:

Mr. Sunshine sat on the kitchen stool taking in the warm morning light from the back door and just a little of the cool reflected light from the dining room window. It all added up to an interesting mix of colors!

I used one of the new kids’ sets of oil pastels which are thinner than the usual to accommodate a child’s hand, but I got accustomed to that and was happy to see they were all of equal consistency and softness, and the colors did not disappoint. I’m still working through my van Gogh impressionism, though here I’ve used a color he would not have, the red violet; I’ve never seen it in any of his paintings.

This sketch is one of the Cats After van Gogh series.

Other artwork featuring  Mr. Sunshine

While I’m working on raising funds for his surgery I’ve also been featuring other artwork that he inspired, so before we get to the downloadable desktop calendars here is a small collection of just Mr. Sunshine.

I’m interspersing them with the text here, grouping them by medium/color, so you can see what I mean. I’m currently printing notecards in different sets and I’ll get those up in the next few weeks. Also, I still have many of these sketches. I haven’t listed most of them on my website because there are just too many, but if you are interested in purchasing an original, please let me know. The small ones, framed, are priced at $50 and are usually 8 x 10 or smaller frame size, and some of the larger ones are $100 and possibly $150 if they are color or frame size 11 x 14. The sizes are rough estimates because some are narrow and some are square.

And of those below you’ll see some familiar ones. There is, of course, the dishtowels, featuring black cats on dishtowels, two of which are exclusively Mr. Sunshine, “Lounging on the Dishtowels” and “Not Blue Stripes,” the latter being the most popular design of the four because everyone seems to have a black cat with that expression. The “potato chips” cat sign features Mr. Sunshine’s silhouette again as “Kitty in Pink,” above, as does my design for my “Sitting Pretty” cat pins/magnets.

Of the four siblings, and mom too, for that matter, Mr. Sunshine’s fur has always been the blackest, and he has shiny highlights on his slightly plushy fur that enhance his physique. He has the nicest facial profile—in fact, he’s the model for “Star of Wonder” because of that very profile! And he is very stolid, settling there like a brick, unmovable. The last two sketches in the group below are not available as originals, but all the others are, and everything goes to help pay for Mr. Sunshine’s care. Send me an email at bernadette at bernadette-k dot com if you have any questions.

A New Member Thank You

If you register for an account on Portraits Of Animals you can always use the code I send you to get your free matted print. But while I’m raising funds for Mr. Sunshine, also consider purchasing a matted print of the artwork without using the coupon, available whether you’ve registered for an account or not. The cost, $35, covers all shipping and handling, and the matted print you receive is ready to drop right into a standard-size frame you may have or can easily purchase at one of many stores. Or you can use it as a donation item for a benefit for animals. In addition to Sunshine With Colors, I’ve also included last month’s featured artwork in this appeal, Highlighted Silhouette.

Register for an account on Portraits of Animals and get a free matted print of “Sunshine With Colors” or choose from several other sketches, paintings or photos of cats and other subjects.

This New Member print is a signed digital print of “Sunshine With Colors”. This print is 5 x 6 and matted with a pure white mat to fit an 8 x 10 frame.

This print is only available as a new member gift during this month while it’s the featured artwork and desktop calendar, so make sure you sign up before the end of the month!


This month’s desktop calendar

I’ve worked this image into a desktop calendar for you to enjoy and use for the entire month.

If these sizes don’t work for your device, or if you have problems, please let me know. Often I can troubleshoot the reason an image won’t download or won’t load on your device, but if I just can’t figure it out I can just email it to you and hope that works.

How to download and use your desktop calendar

  1. Click on one of the images below that matches the dimensions of your monitor to open the image in a new page.
  2. For desktop computers and laptops, right-click on that image and on a desktop computer choose “save as desktop wallpaper” or “save as background” or whichever option your operating system gives you to be able to do this. You may also simply save it to your hard drive and set it as your background from there.
  3. For mobile devices, download the image to your gallery then choose it as your wallpaper—this is slightly different on all devices.

Horizontal and HD monitors and screens

Desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.
Desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.

. . .

Square monitors and screens

Desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square monitors.
Desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square monitors.

. . .

Small Mobile Devices and Tablets

Desktop calendar, 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers.
Desktop calendar, 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers.

. . .

Cell Phones and Smartphones

Desktop calendar, 330 x 700 for cell phones.
Desktop calendar, 330 x 700 for cell phones.

Take a look at other featured artwork and desktop calendar posts.

Each month I feature a piece of feline artwork from the archives to the present day, discuss its history and process, and set it up as a free downloadable desktop calendar for just about every electronic device available.


Click here to see daily sketches, click here to see daily photographs

click here to see other artwork featured on The Creative Cat

or visit Feline Artwork on my main website.

If you are interested in a print of this image, check 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.


Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit 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.


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© 2022 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

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.

2 thoughts on “Featured Artwork and July Desktop Calendar: Sunshine With Colors

  • 15andmeowing

    I love this painting of Mr. Sunshine. I am praying for him.

    Reply

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