Featured Artwork: What Lights? a New Holiday Painting

She’s totally innocent, you can see that by her expression! And you’ll read below how she actually is!

The model is Fromage, our bottle baby foster from 2009, and the first kitten foster who the Fostering Four go their paws on for training in how to be a cat. Her person is a good friend and brought her to me for that extra level of care knowing she’d keep her when she was ready to come home. She did, and I get to see Fromage regularly when I visit her person and I hear about her all the time. I visited my friend at the holidays just a month after she’d brought Fromage back home and got a bunch of cute photos of Fromage playing around upstairs, out of the way of all the guests, and it’s from those photos that I got this idea.

Cat artwork for the holidays

Back in the 90s I began creating a cat image for Christmas or the winter holidays to use as my holiday card; I stopped a decade or so later when business and family issues took time. In 2021 I decided to revive that practice with “Waiting on Christmas Night” in 2021 and “Mischief” in 2022.

I stopped elective painting when the losses began in 2023, and though I really wanted to continue at least my holiday art losing Giuseppe in 2023 and Basil in 2024, both right before Christmas, really took it out of me. But I decided earlier this year that I was going to get back to it. I decided to stay away from images of my current household or the cats I’d recently lost and spent some time looking through film photo prints knowing I’d taken some years ago intentionally for holiday images. No luck, but I did get a section of my film photo archives reorganized.

One of the images of Fromage from that holiday visit was always in the back of my mind, but I felt I’d like to paint it in acrylic instead of pastel, and decided I’d start working in acrylic here and there to get some practice. I did not get that practice through this year, and as December approached I knew I had to get a start, trying to visualize which paints I’d use, what size it would be, how I’d handle the lights, the darks, Fromage and her highlights. I ended up starting it yesterday, on Christmas Eve! I got a good start in the evening and picked it up again today, deciding this would be my gift to me—working on a painting all day, especially since it was raining and I wouldn’t enjoy my typical walk on the trail. So here we are!

About the scene of “What Lights?”

You might recognize this image from reading my holiday cautions for cats article…

That’s the basis of it, as you can see. I wanted a simpler background and more lights. I pulled out all the photos from that day and chose these to pull elements from.

You can see by the caption on the first photo where I got the title—from the time I decided I wanted to do this painting that’s been the title for it!

I liked her pose and expression in the first photo because of the head tilt, but considered the second one. I like the lights in the third one and the much plainer background. I debated for a second or two and decided I really wanted that wooden railing with the lights reflected on the posts to be part of it too. I chose a darker background so the lights and her eyes would stand out best.

So she really didn’t pull the lights down! They were actually like that all along because they trail away to the corner of the room, but you can only see that from the angle in the third photo. Looks like lights play a big role in my holiday art, at least now.

A little about Fromage

My friend’s daughter had found Fromage screaming in a bush in the middle of the G20 protest in Pittsburgh* and had to leave town to go back to college at the end of the day, but knew her mother, a good friend of mine, would take care of her. And she did, but she didn’t realize how young this kitten was when she tried to give her food from her other cats and the kitten had no idea what to do with it. She tried one thing after another and not until she offered the kitten a bit of brie cheese on her finger did the kitten hungrily go for the cheese—that’s how she got her name, “Fromage” being French for “cheese.” Then she called me and asked what to do if the kitten wouldn’t eat, by her description I knew this kitten as a neonate but probably three to four weeks old. I described to her how a neonate is cared for including feedings every two to four hours, special beds and keeping her warm. I knew she couldn’t do all this, I worked with her as the executive director at our local library and she was there all day, every day. So when she asked what she should do with the kitten I told her she should bring her to me, so she did. Fromage didn’t need to be bottle fed for too long and took to regular food well. My friend and her daughter came to visit during that time when her daughter was back in town and my friend decided she’d keep the kitten when she was ready. Fromage just needed a little finishing, learning to be a cat, from the Fostering Four, and Giuseppe was first to start her lessons.

*The G20 protests continued in that neighborhood, and no other kittens were found, nor a mother cat looking for a kitten. It might be that mom cat decided to move them when people started filling the neighborhood and couldn’t get back to her last kitten. You can find more about Fromage in A Little Baby Foster Kitten

Other feline holiday art

Here are a few of my prior images:

 

Where to find this artwork

Since I just finished the painting I don’t have it listed. I did another painting of Fromage and her person wanted to buy that one, so when I see her—and Fromage—next week I’ll show it to her. And since I missed the holiday season I haven’t printed cards. I may print some for my January sale on holiday cards. For now I just wanted to share it!

Hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season!

Take a look at other featured artwork.

Each Wednesday I feature a piece of feline artwork from the archives to the present day, discuss its history and process, and often 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.

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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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