Featured Artwork and March Desktop Calendar: Tri-color Girls Settling Down for a Nap
I’m so excited to introduce a new painting, one I’ve been wanting to paint for 15 years, and I’m late in posting my calendar this month because I insisted on finishing it for this month. Well, goals are good, especially when they help you get a painting done!
They may be well-camouflaged among the pillows, but that’s the way they liked it. My three precious tri-color girls settle down for a nap on the bed on a bright, sunny winter afternoon, February 27, 2007. Peaches was 17, Cookie, 15, and Kelly, 14. Peaches had been with us for about 18 months, but it was as if these three had always been together; this is not the only photo of the three of them on the bed from that era. It was a regular thing. The memories are precious.
Downstairs, Namir is in a box being stalked by Lucy, and at that moment those five were the total number of cats who lived in this house. We had just lost Stanley about a month previous, and Sophie three months before. Peaches had lost her sister Cream nearly a year before, and we had all lost Moses almost exactly a year before. After a chain of losses over a year and I was just glad to enjoy watching these three feeling happy, healthy, safe and sleepy on a sunny afternoon.
The composition, each of the girls in her own space but gathering together, the colors, the familiar window, pillows, bedpost, the routine, I wanted to paint this almost immediately. I put the photo in my folder of images, but other paintings called me first; the following year I painted Peaches and Peonies, and the year after that Darling Clementine.
But I think the time that’s passed has made the moment even sweeter. Fifteen years ago these three were right there in front of me, and I knew that even in that moment there would be a day they would only live in my memory. This past spring, with all my decisions about vendor shows and products and scheduling events, I turned around and decided I wanted more time for my artwork and writing, much of it concerning my family of felines, which had been waiting long enough. And so, I paint, every day.
And there I was in my studio. where Cookie, Kelly and Peaches all began in this house, with two more foster cats, Simba and Midnight Louie, another two rescued fosters observing me in my creative work, and inspiring me to yet more, all over again.
This painting was to be my March featured artwork. Here it is the Ides of March, halfway through. I needed a little extra time to get up to speed and really schedule myself for painting time each day. What better lure for me than spending time with the memory of my three tri-color girls, happy and secure, getting ready for a nap?
I also worked up a new painting for my Nature & Wildlife featured artwork, one I began a year ago, before the crazy race to find and purchase a car. I finished that one too. And so we move forward.
PS: I don’t know if anyone noticed last month, but I didn’t add the actual calendar to the “desktop calendar.” I don’t know that anyone actually uses the dates—I don’t—and that saves me a little time in setting up my monthly “desktop wallpaper.” More time for art.
Where to find this artwork
A New Member Thank You
Register for an account on Portraits of Animals and get a free matted print of “Tri-color Girls Settling Down for a Nap” or choose from several other sketches, paintings or photos of cats and other subjects.
The New Member print is a signed digital print of my pastel painting “Tri-color Girls Settling Down for a Nap”. Prints are made in archival inks on Epson Velvet paper. This print is 8 x 8 and is matted to fit a 12 x 12 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
- Click on one of the images below that matches the dimensions of your monitor to open the image in a new page.
- 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.
- 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
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Square monitors and screens
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Small Mobile Devices and Tablets
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Cell Phones and Smartphones
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.
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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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That really is most beautiful!
If I hadn’t been intent on photographing them I would have too! That’s probably what’s kept me from napping all my life–my cats look too cute while they’re napping and I have to take photos and sketch them.
WELL DONE B !!!! :)♥
Thank you so much!!
Aww, I just want to join them for that nap!