Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Featured Artwork: Namir at the Window, Acrylic Painting

 Namir at the Window, acrylic, 13" x 17" © Bernadette E. Kazmarski
Namir at the Window, acrylic, 13″ x 17″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

This is my one and only (so far) acrylic painting featuring a cat. Here’s the story.

Normally, I’m pretty linear with working on something, focusing on one clear idea at a time. When I’m learning something new I hit points where I’m not skilled enough to do something and need to either work it out there or outside of that piece, or just stop and let the lessons I’ve learned sink in and get back to it when I’m ready to move on. I began this painting in January 2008 from photos I took of Namir in 2005, I think, soon after I’d gotten a big box of acrylic paints and brushes and canvas panels from a neighbor whose aunt had been an artist. I don’t care for the finish on acrylic paints, much preferring oils but not the smells and chemicals, so I’ve just avoided the entire thing. I decided that the gift of free art materials meant the universe wanted me to paint in acrylics, and I wanted to work with a more dimensional medium—I wanted the brushwork, the impasto of layers and colors, the texture of the canvas showing through the paint.I remembered this photo and got started.

I hit a learning wall at one point and put it aside to work on commissions. I pulled it out again in April of 2009 when Namir, at 15 with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, was having increasing trouble with congestive heart failure, kidney failure and related health issues, and I know we didn’t have much time left. I wanted to work on the painting when he was still with me. He died in July 2009, and again I left it where it had been at that time, and this is what you see today.

I love to remember Namir in any way I can, and the area where I keep this windowbox is too shady for the colorful geraniums and petunias and marigolds I’d always grown in it. The pleasant memory of him at the window with the flowers is a treasure to spend time with, a time that has passed, but one I’d probably return to if I could.

The canvas panel, and the painting, is actually larger than this, but I cropped it down to the area of it I like and feel is the essence of the painting. I want it to show what I remember most and what I feel is most important, and I don’t need to show the whole scene to do that as I first thought. It’s a canvas stretched on cardboard, not stretchers, so all I need to do when I’m done is cut out the part I want to use and frame that. I’ve done that with others I painted in the same era. For now, I just won’t work on that anymore. That’s kind of freeing!

painting of cat with flowers by window
The full version of the painting

Where to find this artwork

You can purchase a print of this sketch on Portraits of Animals, canvas, digital or giclee, or a greeting card.


Click here to see other daily sketches.

For a gallery of the ones available for sale, visit Portraits of Animals in the “Daily Sketches” section.

Read about the reason for the daily sketches in Three Years of Daily Sketches.

Download your free desktop wallpaper calendar for computer or mobile, usually based on a daily sketch.

And don’t forget that each month’s Featured Artwork is also one of the free prints available on Portraits of Animals when you sign up for an account.

Desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors.

"Feline Style Sampler" book of sketches and portraits.

A collection of 34 images of feline artwork

Feline Style Sampler

Daily sketches, illustrations, commissioned portraits all in a small coil-bound gift book.

Click here or on the image to read more or find this book on 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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