Marketplace: Desktop Calendars and New Artwork
I just entered this painting, “Peach Begonias,” into a local art exhibit along with two landscapes today. I’ve been looking forward to that, really to share this painting I’m pretty proud of with other artists. I think I really hit the mark with the transparency of watercolor and the painting has the luminosity I have always tried to achieve in a watercolor painting.
I painted this, actually finished it from the sketch and first washes I’d put on paper years ago and not finished, at the beginning of May this year to use it as my desktop calendar for that month.
New artwork
I had loosely planned a new cat painting and a new nature painting every month this year, especially after discovering the joy of my new pastels in January, to enjoy working on images I’ve wanted to paint for years or months or even from life. I can’t describe how it feels when I finish a painting but it’s something I don’t know I need until I have it and I feel complete. I’d have new art for exhibits and for sale and I could use them as my monthly desktop calendars to feature them.
I haven’t updated either my feline or nature desktop calendars since then. That was the month I could see Mewsette was really beginning to decline and I spent a lot of time on her, and I could see Jelly Bean moving in the same direction, Giuseppe ended up in emergency mid-month for hyertension, and then getting the diagnoses for both Mewsette and Mr. Sunshine from their ultrasounds at the end of the month not only filled my mind, it filled my heart, and I need that to create my artwork, so I haven’t done any artwork since then except covers for Patricia’s books.
I’m ready to open up and start painting again, but I honestly can’t imagine painting any of the images of any of my cats. I had an idea in mind for a painting of Mewsette and Mimi from May and early June and I’d been ready to start on that just after she died, and a couple of other favorites, the green wicker loveseat, climbing the tree in autumn, but then Jelly Bean…I still want to paint it, I’m just not sure about right now. I may start off with one of my photos of a storm coming in on Lake Erie from two years ago that I really wanted to paint, it’s still timely for the season, it will open that door, and it won’t hit that part of my heart that is still grieving. I just know that I need to create new artwork.
No more desktop calendars
But either way I don’t think I’ll get back to monthly desktop calendars. I love choosing from existing art, even pulling from very far back in my archives, or creating the art and designing the calendars and offering the free matted prints. But that is all quite time-consuming, and I rarely get an order for a free matted print. I’ve been posting the desktop calendars since 2012 and offering the free prints since 2016 and it’s actually given me a deadline to get something finished, even a season or month to plan to work for, but I guess I can just share my new work at any time. It will be an adjustment, but I’m adjusting to so many other changes right now it’s actually a relief not to have to take the time for this.
So “Peach Begonias,” and “The Garden Gate,” will be the final ones. I’ll have some offer with new artwork when I create it. I’m not fond of giveaways but that may be an idea.
New merchandise
I’m reconsidering my vendor shows too. Sales have not been good this year, not just for me, and I still have most of what I made in the spring. I have two farmers markets in September and possibly a few other events in October and November.
Inventing, designing and creating the keepsakes and votives and garden flags and even more ideas I haven’t had a chance to make yet are activities I need too, creative challenges, but not at the high level of an original painting (or block print or other print, and I have had several in mind for years). It carries me along between bigger things and I really love the whole process. I need to decide if I’m going to follow through with my original plan of choosing a few bigger events each year and move on from the easy ones. I would need help with that to be successful and it’s not really out there. Or rely entirely on my websites. I just don’t know. I don’t have to decide everything right now.
Handmade gifts are available!
In any case, while I work my way through this, don’t forget when you are shopping for gifts or for yourself that I do have handmade gifts in addition to art on Portraits of Animals! I haven’t been able to make anything all summer either, but that’s because everything, materials and equipment and space, have been completely tied up, and I’m finally getting things back in order item by item, framing, heat press, screen printing, etc., so finally I can finish some orders and work on some of those new products—feline solar lights, wind chimes and note pads, to name a few ideas. Not sure how fast or how soon, but I have my plans.
If you want to see what’s new and have a chance to buy it before I share it in public, subscribe to The Creative Cat Preview Newsletter, which has always been just about monthly though I haven’t published that this summer either. You can sign up here.
If you have any ideas for me, I’d love to hear them! And thanks for following me.
Marketplace
Mewsette helps me with lighting and composition while photographing the keepsakes.
Take a look at other new merchandise and featured artwork.
Marketplace is a feature on The Creative Cat to share the latest coming out of my studio with my readers. Once a week on Thursday I feature something new in my “shop” .
Read about creating custom items
Find out more about creating custom items for your own home using the images you see here. Visit the “Ordering Custom Art” page to see samples and read bout how to order.
Find out about events and festivals where you can find me and my work.
Sign up for my e-newsletter (below), check the widget on the sidebar on my home page, or sign up to receive posts on Portraits of Animals Marketplace. I plan on plenty of events this coming summer in the Pittsburgh area.
It’s all done under the close and careful supervision of my studio cats!
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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You are so talented.
Thank you, Ellen. I’m glad I can take the time to enjoy my talents, and with some of the best meowdels.