Featured Daily Sketch: Studio Guardians, the Painting, July 8, 2012

July 17, 2026 Bernadette

watercolor of two cats on windowsill — Studio Guardians, watercolor pencil, 7 x 10, 2012 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

From 2012: Yesterday I actually did a painting of Giuseppe and Mewsette guarding my studio, and took photos for reference, and just to have them. I didn’t get the chance last night to post the painting, though I like the photo and posted that as yesterday’s daily photo (actually seen below), intending to just show a comparison of two different media, and what I often do to sketches to simplify them and focus on the subjects.

If you look at yesterday’s photo below you’ll see there’s much more stuff in front of and around them. While this does look like my studio, it’s distracting, and I don’t like to include unnecessary details in my paintings. What I was seeing was what you see here, Giuseppe and Mewsette, the vase with brushes, the window with the green outdoors, and a few miscellaneous shadows. What you don’t see is what I either literally did not see, or simply ignored. I’m good at that. So are my cats.

From 2018: Since I’ve been spending more time in my studio in the past few years, photos and sketches of my studio cats have become a thing. This little sketch from six years ago is still one of my favorites, in part because it’s bright and colorful and also because it’s very specific for place, but it’s timeless. The old casement with the vase of paintbrushes on the windowsill has been there a long time, the bright green trees outside the window, and many cats have spent time in the sun on the windowsill so it’s timeless. Funny that I painted this so early in my daily sketches series. It was almost prophetic.

From 2026: For all its faults I miss that old metal casement window as the backdrop to soooo many photos of my cats, and then paintings of them when I started my daily sketches, and there are a few more to come as finished paintings. Back to the days before I moved in and was working on the house, Kublai often came with me so he could explore. But he jumped up onto every windowsill in the house, each of them with its own metal casement window, and the studio was my favorite with its heavy green outside. That first decade saw the big mix of my household from white Sally to black Kublai, an assortment of torties and tri-colors and gingers and grays. The studio was my foster room until 2007 when I moved Mimi and the kittens to the studio. And, of course, the piles of black studio cats from Mimi and the grown-up kittens, fosters Emeraude and Kennedy, then Basil and Bella, fosters Alvina and Simon, and Morty and Max in there, what a collection of beautiful memories.

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Studio Guardians, the photo, 2012

two black cats on windowsill — Studio Guardians

From 2012: Kelly took the day off as my studio cat today, at least so far, so Giuseppe and Mewsette took their places on the cool marble windowsill. Surely I am well supervised, and no evil spirits would dare pass my guardians.

One drawback was that they were a little too far away for me to touch, so all I could do was look a them, a pleasure. I also photographed them repeatedly, and painted them as well, scan coming later.

See more photos of art cats and studio cats.

From 2026: A total treasure to be able to see these two settling down with me in the studio.

Daily Sketches 2011 to 2015

I think I accomplished what I'd set out to do three years ago today, a challenge to me and entertainment and enjoyment for you: to create a quick sketch of my cats each day as a way to practice and experiment, and present the sketch on that day with no editing, no waiting, no excuses, just to do the sketch and share it.

Read more about the reason for the daily sketches in Daily Sketches: the Idea, Most Popular, Awards.

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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.