Monday, March 18, 2024
book covercat artworkcat paintingDaily Featuredesktop calendarfeatured artworkmarketplacepastelpastel paintingThursdayWednesday

Featured Artwork and October Desktop Calendar: Olivia and Archie

two cats and sunflowers
Olivia and Archie, 8″ x 10″, pastel © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Two pretty gingery cats and some yellow-orange sunflowers, what could be more autumnal than that?

This painting was originally an illustration for one of Patricia Fry’s recent book covers, Olivia’s Secret, which I haven’t featured here yet—we just finished that cover and the book was published at the beginning of September, just a few weeks ago.

I still have the original art for all the covers and, as I’d mentioned regularly reviewing my artwork, this recent cover kept catching my eye as a nice painting. Book cover illustrations, out of context, don’t often make good freestanding works because the content is often tied up in clues or information about the content of the book, like a mystery book cover with the word “DIE” on a scrap of paper. And the illustration has to accommodate text as well, including the title, author’s name, sometimes a subtitle or description or review, so you get awkward empty areas.

You’ve met Olivia, the calico cat, and Archie, the ginger cat, is a friend of Olivia’s and shows up in the stories now and then. Olivia is also Patricia’s cat and she supplies plenty of photos of her for me to use. Archie is modeled by a foster from 2014 named Bert (of Bert and Ernie) now named Simon. In this instance, sunflowers played a part in the mystery, and she wanted them positioned on a porch. The book covers are 5″ x 8″ so I need to compose vertically and steps work well, and the green in the reference photo I used made a vibrant background. There is more to the illustration top and bottom, but those areas are where the title and other information go, and have little detail, so they conveniently crop out.

The two pretty cats, the sunflowers, the vibrant green, as I studied it in my studio and thinking about my next monthly desktop calendar (especially since I totally skipped September!) it hit me like a smack on the forehead—there’s my next calendar art! To date, Patricia and I have finished 69 covers—69! I’m sure a few others out of that many will make nice desktop calendars too.

Click here to register for your account to order your free print. When I receive your registration I’ll send you an email with information on how to order.

Or visit the listing for this artwork and read more about this artwork and other similar works, and order the original or a different print.

 

A New Member Thank You

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

This New Member print is a signed digital print of “Olivia and Archie”. This print is 8 x 10 and matted with a pure white mat to fit an 11 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, 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

AfterDinnerNap-Etsy

Fine ArtPhotographyGiftsGreeting CardsBooksCommissioned Portraits & Artwork



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.


Subscribe to my e-newsletter

Subscribe to The Creative Cat Preview E-newsletter.


© 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!

 
PORTRAITS OF ANIMALS WEBSITE
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | LINKEDIN | PINTEREST | TUMBLR | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE| EMAIL | PATREON

HOME

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.

3 thoughts on “Featured Artwork and October Desktop Calendar: Olivia and Archie

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this:
Verified by ExactMetrics