Featured Artwork: “Orange Boy,” Pastel, 1993

June 24, 2026 Bernadette

Orange Boy, pastel, 5" x 7" © Bernadette E Kazmarski — Orange Boy, pastel, 6″ x 8″ © Bernadette E Kazmarski

This is an early pastel, and pretty small, an experiment in working loose, painted from a photoI took of a friend’s cat. I think I remember being able to visualize the photo as a softer, looser pastel when I looked at him sitting there, his graceful posture, the dappled sun and shadow, the softness of the leaf litter and depth of the green pine trees in the background. So, a cat and a landscape, something that would becme a recurring theme in years to follow.

Here’s what I had to say about it when I added it to my portfolio book in 1993.

Orange cats are different, especially orange boys. Most of the ones I have known are quiet and sweet-tempered, spending a good bit of time in apparent contemplation, although I think some of them are really just trying to form a thought. From time to time, friends give me pictures to work from, and this is one that especially caught my eye for a small and simple, less detailed work.

I had found my muse in pastel with “Waiting for Mom,” a very detailed pastel painting. I found that working with the detail, catching every nuance clearly, taught me more than trying to be an Impressionist right out of the box. My balance of light and shadow was better and my color sense was far more accurate, and my control of the composition kept everything in proportion over the whole painting.

I was just beginning to paint landscapes which are “by nature” detailed, and just like painting cats I found that painting landscapes in all their detail was a good beginning for capturing a landscape. After a few years, five in this case, I wanted to learn to work loose in both genre and felt more comfortable after the experience of working in deep detail.

While I’d started painting landscapes by then all my experiments with new styles or media were cats. This image included both a cat and nature and I am a little surprised that I visualized it all in a pretty loose style and then achieved that at this point. But here we are and the rest is history.

I apparently didn’t photograph it before I framed it so the only image I have of it is in a frame with a mat which I cut pretty close to the tip of his tail and my signature so I’ve included a little of that mat in the image here.

I sold it shortly after I painted it to someone who purchased a half dozen small works to auction off for a rescue benefit.

Where to find this artwork

The original painting is sold, long ago. Because of the quality of the image I’ll probably just keep this image to a note card, though they might also be found on a small gift item.

Take a look at other featured artwork.

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.

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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.