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Featured Artwork and November Desktop Calendar: Best Friends

Best Friends, pastel on burgundy Canson Mi Tientes paper, 9 x 24, 1992 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski
Best Friends, pastel on burgundy Canson Mi Tientes paper, 9 x 24, 1992 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Moses and Fawn were inseparable when Fawn was a kitten; here they are relaxing after a strenuous wrestling session, close enough friends to settle their differences and share the one spot of sunshine in the room. But who needs all that garbage in the background? I just wanted to show the attachment between these two. The sun on them is like a spotlight holding the two of them together against the darker background. It was drawn on burgundy paper to match the decor of the recipient, but as you see below the room also had a red carpet and burgundy is one of my favorite colors.

That’s what I had to say in the early 90s when I painted this and also set up my portfolio album. This painting of “my first feral” Moses and Fawn from “my first litter” is one of my first paintings after I’d moved to this house and started building my portfolio toward offering commissioned pet portraits.

I know that I was very inspired by the contrast of the sunlight and darkness on these two, and the way the two were spotlighted by it. I had wanted to use a sketchy style, not a smooth one with a lot of blending, but one where you could see the diagonal lines I’d used to stroke the color onto the paper. I can see the awkwardness of my inexperienced strokes, of the shapes of the cats, of the lack of proportion, but it all still works. Moses was a solid gray tabby and Fawn was a torbie. Moses’ marks were regular and symmetrical and Fawn’s were anything but. I had fun tackling a torbie for the first time, and their naturally graceful composition whet my appetite for other similar portraits.

And it’s my yittle girls. Moses was the first feral cat I rescued, and didn’t even know it. Fawn was the kitten not adopted from “my first litter”. They were only a year apart in age, and after the other kittens and mother were adopted I was so happy to see Fawn found a friend in her shy “big sister” Moses, and Moses responded by actually playing, the first serious play I’d seen her engage in. The room they are in was my foster room at that time as well as my sewing and craft room, and Moses had been in there the year before and still considered it her “safe room”. When I took in Fawn’s mother I installed her in there and closed the door, much to Moses’ consternation. But she patiently waited through the gestation and kittening and nuturing and then adoptions, and as soon as the door was permitted to be open again, she was back in there. I would guess Fawn always felt an affinity for that room too, since it was the first she’d remembered, and so the two encountered each other frequently. Seeing them wrestle just made my heart sing. And settling down like that was pure joy for me. When we moved here two years later the two remained friends but not playmates anymore.

I painted it as a thank you gift to a friend who had come to my house to feed and play with my cats while I was away for nearly aa week (for my first ever trip to the ocean, the only thing that could get me away from my cats for that long). She didn’t want any money for what she’d done, so I fixed her with something that wasn’t money. She liked these two the best and told me about petting them, interesting since Moses had been a feral kitten who vaporized when other humans than me were around, and Fawn was too busy to be petted.

Reference photo of Moses and Fawn.
Reference photo of Moses and Fawn.

This was the reference photo, taken in the house I rented before I’d moved in here, though I painted it in 1992. I love their memories so much.

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 “Best Friends” 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 “Best Friends”. Prints are made in archival inks on Epson Velvet paper. This print is 8 x 12 and matted to fit a 12 x 14 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, 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers.
Desktop calendar, 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers.

. . .

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.

Click here to subscribe to The Creative Cat on your Kindle.

. . .

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.

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