Vintage Photo: Allegro and Stanley, 1989
Sometimes the fun of taking photos with film was getting them back and finding a really interesting shot, one that you think is a failure at first, but in time grows on you. You can clearly see Allegro, but look a little to the right of him and you’ll see Stanley.
I remembered this photo through the years for the odd angle, and Stanley’s expression looking at Allegro. It’s an odd angle because they are both on the rafters in the basement and looking out the basement window at ground level, but they are directly over my head. I looked up and saw them in a spot they enjoyed, and just took the photo, having no idea if I would get anything on film because of the lighting. The little hexagons are the refraction of sunlight coming into the lens at an angle and creating sunflares, but it was dark up on the rafters where they were sitting.
Allegro was a mellow yellow kitty, but he and Stanley both reacted aggressively when they saw another cat out in “their yard”. Allegro being the larger and stronger cat, Stanley usually came out a little worse for wear, a victim of displaced aggression. Allegro is looking at something pretty intensely, and I think Stanley was sensing Allegro’s concentration and wondering if he should hit the road. If Stanley wasn’t sensing it, I was. Stanley’s urinary issues had been diagnosed and the stress of a conflict with Allegro could start him into a urinary infection and possibly a blockage and when I saw something possibly beginning I did my best to distract them to defuse the situation.
While I remember looking up at them in that spot I don’t know if that memory is from when I took this photo, or if I just remember them in a spot they enjoyed and I saw them in regularly in the years I lived in that house. It’s on the same roll as the photos of Stanley and Moses on the bed and Stanley and Fawn in the dining room. I suspect it’s even the same sunny afternoon.
I would often find Stanley and Allegro together, so the displaced aggression didn’t really hurt their friendship. Here’s a sketch of them I did on coquille back in those days from a photo I took of them enjoying a cool windowsill in summer.
The basement in that house had four ground-level windows, two facing north and two facing south. This was one of the south windows that had the convenient beam they could crouch on. The other window didn’t, but Allegro could still fit himself on the windowsill, as in my pastel “Suncatcher”.
Suddenly, in that year, everything they did became a possible subject for artwork. Yes, those cats made an artist out of me for sure.
Photos From the Archives and Vintage Photos
Photos pulled “From the Archives” were taken by one or another digital camera of mine between 2002 and, well, yesterday, but usually they are older than that, and I had never had the chance to feature them. Vintage Photos are from my film archives back to 1983 when I purchased my Pentax K-1000 camera. They’re a fun way to “introduce” other members of my feline family who came and went before I began blogging, and to illustrate my feline family in general from days gone by.
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This sketch was among my four first pastels. I remember studying the highlights on Allegro’s fur, and the light outside the window and on the wall, with the deep shadows. He was on the basement windowsill, and I’ve always love the dramatic lighting of scenes like that. I Read more and purchase.
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
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!
Very nice artworkPawkisses for a Happy Day
Thank you so much! Allegro and Stanley were two of my first muses.
I love that you captured Allegro’s curled tailio!
In the painting? Yes, that was one of Allegro’s specialties!