Featured Artwork and September Desktop Calendar: Stanley With Apple

September 2, 2021September 3, 2021 Bernadette

pastel sketch of cat on table with apple — “Stanley With Apple”, 5″ x 7″, pastel © B.E. Kazmarski

In looking for a subject for this month’s calendar I just couldn’t decide among several other pieces and looked back through ones I’d done since 2012. I saw this one from September 2013, and it’s purrfect! I love what I did with the piece of “chalk”, and each size is different and interesting. Honestly, even what I had to say way back then! Enjoy!

I like to have my monthly desktop calendar ready before the first of the month, and I usually have an idea far ahead of time which one I’d like to use, and have the layout loosely designed in my mind. But I had so many ideas for which image to use as my desktop calendar for September—all those wonderful autumn colors have appeared in all my cats, especially my torties, and generally in my artwork as I use them for effect. Having too many ideas can be a bad thing sometimes, but I enjoy the opportunity to weigh several pieces of artwork to be used for some purpose—I do it all the time when I choose art for merchandise.

In fact, I didn’t know until today which one it would be, not until we all watched the neighbor kids running for their bus (well, eight years later they are getting in their cars with their masks on) this morning, and I remembered this sketch of Stanley, not only with an apple, the universal symbol for “school”, but the background looks like one of those green chalkboards with chalk dust all over it! It’s time for Back to School! Unfortunately, I rarely have time to work on The Creative Cat during the day, and today was no exception, especially with a holiday weekend coming up. But better late than never today!

The original of this sketch is only 5″ x 7″, but I have a high-resolution scan of it. In order to create the extra background, I copied and pasted and sampled and moved and finally covered enough of the background. And that piece of chalk? It’s actually a pastel I’d photographed and used for another project—I actually finished all the layouts without it, then remembered I had wanted to add that little tromp l’oeil, and went back and added the chalk and chalk dust. What fun! And did you notice it’s yellow—do you remember when teachers started to use yellow chalk on those green boards because it was easier on the eyes?

So back to today…

cat in silhouette with apple — Stanley With Apple.

This image was both a vintage photo and the daily sketch for June 22, 2012. Even then I thought it would make a nice painting, and like so many other photos I waited decades before I got to it. I decided to use it for one of my daily sketches, which were usually done from life with my cats at that time.

It’s tiny, 5″ x 7″, and the paper is rough so the details are loose but I think it captures the composition; there are things I would change, there are always things I’d change, and perhaps someday I’ll do the larger sketch where I can capture all the details and those things I would change.

To think I took that photo in 1994, before I had done most of what I have today. Nearly 25 years ago my rendering would have been quite different, or 10 years ago or last year or even yesterday, literally and metaphorically colored by my experiences in life and as an artist, and even the quality of sunlight coming in the window. All those years ago Stanley was about 9 years old, not even halfway through his 25 years. And my handsome and inspiring Stanley gets to be featured twice. After living for 25 years, he kind of deserves that.

I also used this sketch for my “Impressionist” garden flag, backed with “White Cat Reflecting”. Now they are two separate flags because I can’t print back to back. The White Cat Reflecting garden flag is available now, and Stanley With Apple will be ready when I bring out the autumn feline garden flags in a week or two. Stanley’s all over the place on The Creative Cat, so click here to see more images and read more stories about him.

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 “Stanley With Apple” 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 marker sketch “Stanley With Apple”. Prints are made in archival inks on Epson Silky Photo Paper. This print is 5″ x 7″ and matted 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!

Or purchase another size print or greeting card

The original sketch is sold, but you can choose another style or size of print of “Stanley With Apple” on the product listing. I offer prints as:

digital prints on matte-finish art paper
giclees on art paper
on canvas in standard sizes
as framed prints, as shown, and custom framing is available

You may soon find this image on several gift items

You can find this art and more on Portraits of Animals. Search “Stanley With Apple” to find what’s currently available.

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

Desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.

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Square monitors and screens

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

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Small Mobile Devices and Tablets

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

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Cell Phones and Smartphones

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

Fine Art • Photography • Gifts • Greeting Cards • Books • Commissioned 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.