Featured Artwork: It’s Basil! Because I Missed Him So Much

I couldn’t find the photo. I just wanted to run my fingers through his belly fur one more time. So I painted the image I remembered of my sweet Basil.

“It’s Basil!”

I don’t know how many times each day I walked into a room to see Basil stand up to greet me, round eyes and happy tail in the air (he had a serious case of “happy tail”) or, as above, roll over on his back for a belly rub, especially in his famous yellow basket. Beneath his sometimes absurd fear of everyday things—he ducked and ran from the room with big round eyes when I started into a sneeze—Basil was a silly boy along with being totally affectionate and loyal. His first loyalty was to his ninjas, Giuseppe, Jelly Bean, Mewsette and Mr Sunshine; I know he grieved the losses of each of his mentors. Then he turned to me with all that love and affection.

We can never presume the future but after we lost Mimi I began to look forward to the next 10 years or so with Basil as leader of our feline family, and I feel he was settling into the role too.

From a terrified tiny wisp of a 14-week-old kitten on the kill list at the shelter for his “temperament,” who I took to foster in hopes I could socialize him, he grew into a big sturdy housepanther with lots of fluffy mahogany fur, velvety paws and plushy face. He was diagnosed with asthma though he was always asymptomatic, so he stayed with me. I had fun learning his meow language: “hi!,” “okay!,” “let’s cuddle,” and “mrrph” which he said as he jumped down from the cabinet with a treat I handed him because he always had to take his “kill” to the floor. When I was late serving up a meal he would find every mousie (that’s the toy variety) in the kitchen and walk to the kitchen doorway, softly mrowing his announcement.

Those and a million other things about Basil that I will never forget.

Below is a video I made of creating the portrait with my narration. I’ve done my best to make the video with close-up views of Basil’s portrait so you can see the details more clearly, though my camera catches the color a little cooler than it actually is no matter what settings I use. It can be really surprising to see how light and shadow and pattern are created on a flat surface, and how colors mix and blend. I don’t always like to go fully detailed for portraits. Sometimes I like one of the earlier, looser stages. But what I was remembering was actually all the details in his fur and naturally gravitated to adding in all the details to the finest hairs in some places.

I wrote this in January 2025, a month after I’d lost Basil, so my narration reflects the context of that month. Below the video is the text of my narration, so you can listen and read along, or watch and listen and then read, or however you want to enjoy the video.

“It’s Basil!” Basil’s Portrait

I was putting together a remembrance card about Basil to send to veterinarians who took care of him and friends who had donated for his care, and I wanted a certain photo of him to use inside the card. He loved to sleep in his basket, or just about any surface, curled on his side. When I would walk toward him I would say, “It’s Basil!” and he would roll over on his back but stay curled, exposing all that curly belly fur and waiting for a gentle belly rub during which he air kneaded with his front paws and curled and uncurled his back toes, relaxed and gave me a little blep with his tongue and even the tips of his fangs.

He was not long-haired but had a lot of medium fur with a distinct chocolate cast, a bottle-brush tail, big velvety paws and a plushy forehead that I would kiss all the time. I looked through ten years of photos for the one I was sure I had taken and only found ones that included some of those features I wanted to remember.

A little voice said to me, “You could just paint it,” and suddenly I knew I should because I really wanted to run my fingers through that belly fur one last time and when I paint with my pastels I blend with my fingers, and I could just feel that and knew that would suffice for running my fingers through Basil’s fur.

I collected all the photos I’d been looking at and put together a composite out of little bits from many photos to get the details I wanted, and I kept all the other photos close so I could see the details in context. I rubbed pastel on the back of the paper then traced out some guidelines with a pen on the composite, then started adding areas of color. I painted most of it the first day, then worked through details for the next five days, making changes to some areas of the layout like his tail, which I wanted to see because he usually had it draped somewhere.

Now, I haven’t painted any elective paintings, only illustrations and some very small portraits, since early May 2023 when the five I lost before Basil were all showing signs of illness and the lights went out for my creative focus. They had been such muses for me but suddenly there was so much caretaking and vigilance with each of them, and sadness. When I paint I put all of me into it, and there wasn’t anything left, and I wanted to keep my focus on each of them for any and all the time we had left. Then I unexpectedly lost Basil a month ago. I thought it would be some time next year before I could ease myself back to my hours of creative activities.

So whose voice was it that said I should paint this image I was trying to find? My inner voice communicates all the time and I have learned to always listen, but I think it was Basil’s idea. Maybe he wanted another belly rub too. However it happened I managed to walk right back into my techniques and skills as if I’d never been away. And I am already visualizing new paintings.

Thanks, Basil. All of you through the decades have been a part of my creative life, from back in the beginning to encourage and inspire me to keep on working on my drawing and painting skills and each day giving me reasons every day to photograph and paint and visualize, and here I am today.

I’ve done my best to make the video with close-up views of Basil’s portrait so you can see the details more clearly, though my camera catches the color a little cooler than it actually is no matter what settings I use. It can be really surprising to see how light and shadow and pattern are created on a flat surface, and how colors mix and blend. I don’t always like to go fully detailed for portraits. Sometimes I like one of the earlier, looser stages. But what I was remembering was actually all the details in his fur and naturally gravitated to adding in all the details to the finest hairs in some places.

Some thoughts from October 2025

If you follow me on social media you may have seen this when I shared it there in January 2025 but because all my websites were offline after a malware intrusion at that time I’ve never shared it here on The Creative Cat. If you have seen it, you get to see it again. While I’m celebrating Basil on and around the date his urinary condition first showed up in October 2024 rather than remember how frightening that was I thought I’d take this time to share his portrait. I’d rather remember him this way.

And another thought: I painted his portrait sooner than any other portrait or even other painting that I visualized and wanted to paint. I visualized it and planned it a little less than a month after we lost him, worked it out and began painting it a few days later. For me that’s record time to start and finish a painting.

I didn’t realize how detailed I’d worked his fur until after I finished the portrait and went back to look at it. That’s happened with other portraits and paintings too. I get in the zone, the communication between my brain visualizing and my fingers is direct, and it just happens as I work. But I really had all those memories in my head that I wanted to keep and they went right onto the paper.

After I finished the portrait I balanced the heavy pastel paper above my desk right where I can see him from my desk whenever I’m working, and I can also see him from any angle as I enter the room. Bella and I had developed a morning habit of having a cuddle session each morning as I sat at the table with my coffee and reading emails and articles, and from my chair I look right through the kitchen doorway to my desk. At one point as the sun rose each day the light would reflect off of papers on my desk and up onto Basil’s portrait and completely illuminate it. I always felt that was his way of being with us.

I wasn’t sure when I’d frame his portrait but decided to enter him into the Art for Animals exhibit in June and framed him for that. His portrait is hanging right where I had the portrait balanced before framing, and the morning sunlight still reflects on him where I can see it in the morning, with Bella at the table.

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Where to find this artwork

I haven’t yet made prints of this painting, nor greeting cards or any gift items. But if you’re interested in a print please let me know.

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Also browse Featured Artwork

I also feature artwork which has not been commissioned, especially my paintings of my own cats. If you’d like to read more about artwork as I develop it, about my current portraits and art assignments and even historic portraits and paintings, I feature commissioned portrait or other piece of artwork on Wednesday. Choose the categories featured artwork.

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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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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

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