Cats Meow

I've been playing with cats lately.  Yeah, I know I'm allergic to them... but these cats are painted, no sneezing involved.  Perfect.

I was inspired by a photograph I took of a cat sitting inside a niche, in an old wall that lined a street, in Toledo. Spain. My husband and I took a belated 25th wedding anniversary trip to Spain, in October of last year. We spent most of our time in Barcelona and Madrid, but we took an overnight trip to Toledo following the advice of travel guru, Rick Steve.  As we walked around the city, I spotted this cat, sitting in the wall. It was too cool to pass by without snapping a few shots for reference later. Out of the three photos I took (my husband basically keeps walking. He's a walker and I have to snap and run. He doesn't slow down for much. LOL) I managed to get two good shots and one blurry one.  Fortunately, all were viable for reference photos.

"Cat in the Wall", oil, 11" x 14", Lois Primeau, artist, ©2012

The first painting I did was of the grey tabby - the actual cat that was in the wall.

"Cat in the Wall, Too", oil, 11" x 14", Lois Primeau, artist, ©2012

Then I decided I wanted to do another cat, an orange tabby.  But this time I had to make up a cat because I didn't have a photo to work from. Relying on my cat anatomy "knowledge", I embarked on another painting of a cat in the wall. The first attempt turned into a situation where I was fighting more with what I had done incorrectly, i.e. trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.  I figured it would just be simpler to start over.  I grabbed another canvas and started the orange tabby again.  I changed the position slightly and created a new set of problems.  I painted it and thought I had it completed. In the light of day the next morning I thought to myself, "What the hell? This cat's face is TOTALLY wrong. If it were to lower it's head it would look ridiculous and the eyes are really a mess!" I started to carefully rethink the cat's face, pulling out of my pea brain what a cat's face should really look like, instead of being caught up in the moment of the entire painting.  It took a couple of revisions, mostly to the fur ruff around the neck to get to a "happy place" with the painting.

"Kitten in the Wall", oil, 11" x 14", Lois Primeau, artist, ©2012

The night I was finishing up the orange tabby, the image for the next one came to me.  I wanted to do a black kitten tucked back inside the niche, where all one could initially see were it's eyes.  As I worked on the kitten, I decided I wanted to have little white toes, as well, which lead to the little white bib and tip of the tail.
She is my favorite way to paint - pulling an image out of the dark. I like working with subtle differences in the "black", which really isn't black.

I'm planning to do a calico cat next and also a tuxedo cat.  I'm having too much fun playing with cats to quit!

More Rust Removal

I'm still working on knocking the rust off.  I've never done much with pastels, that is working loosely with them.  I've always admired pastel artists and love the way they can layer the colors.  So, what the heck, why not?  Eventually, the rust removal should be complete and I may learn something new along the way.

Knocking the Rust Off

I'm still getting back into the swing of being in the studio.  I played around with my conté crayons, trying to "knock the rust off" my "art brain" for a bit, this afternoon.  I worked from a photo in one of my books and made the face up.  I think I might be getting the gears moving again ☺

Procrastination Central

One week into the new year and I'm having trouble getting "back in the saddle, again".  I've done all the procrastinating I can do - I've taken down Christmas decorations, I've cleaned up my studio, I've made lists of goals and exhibitions/competitions I want to enter this year... I even found my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project - which by the way, has to be postmarked by January 31st.  Yikes!  So what's my problem?  What keeps me glued to whatever flotsam that wafts by and away from actually starting my work?  I even know what I want to start on!  It's almost like my brain doesn't remember how good it feels once I start working on my artwork.  I need a swift kick in the rear to get moving!  Anybody wearing some steel-toed boots?

Okay, that's it! Back to the studio and see if anything starts moving...

The Purge Urge

I've been doing a lot of thinking these past few days.  I think most of us do, as the end of the year approaches and the new one begins.  Why is that?  Why are we wired in such a way that we're always looking for a new beginning, a fresh start?  We're always trying to reach some pinnacle of perfection....  Or is it just that the storage containers and bins go on sale and suddenly we're all struck to be "Martha Stewarts" and have our lives perfectly organized and labeled?  Heck, even her life isn't perfection, remember that little jailhouse stint of hers?  But seriously, what is it about the new year that brings on this sudden nesting urge?  Is it the word "new" and therefore we want everything to be shiny and bright?  Or is it the clap-trap trimmings of the holidays have by now lost their luster and excitement and we're getting tired of the tinsel from the tree showing up in every room of the house and stuck on our socks?  It's funny because yesterday our tree and Christmas decorations were perfectly safe.  The thought had even crossed my mind that perhaps we'd leave it up for another week.  Today, I'm planning how tomorrow it all comes down so the tree can be picked up on Tuesday's trash day!  What happened in that 24 hour period that flipped the switch in my brain?

And don't even get me started on my studio!  For those of you that have followed the perils of my studio the past year know that I just put it back together in September after having it torn apart for many months.  Guess what?  I'm ready to tear it apart again!  Not in the same sense, but this time a purging - a new year's purging.  I think it's all part of "the thinking" I've been doing.  You see, yesterday I went out art supplies shopping.  Now as an artist, that's fantastic, right?  I mean, an artist can never have too many art supplies.  Guess what?  Yes, they can.  That little shopping trip made me realize a few things about myself and also the direction I want to go with my art.  It made me decide I really need to focus.  Oh sure, I can do lots of creative things and I paint and I can draw, but I don't think I'm the best I can possibly be at anything in particular and therefore, I need to focus.  So, the first thing I did was say buh-bye to my Two Frogs Studios Facebook page.  I don't do that anymore, haven't done it for some time, so why was I hanging on to it? Stuff... hanging on to "stuff"... time to purge.  I'm tired of hanging on to bits of Frogs' flotsam.  That'll be the first stuff purged from the studio.  Then I'm hitting the bookcases.  I've got to have a real honest conversation with myself on my books....  The rest of the supplies are safe, since they were recently purged.  But no more Mooney B. Finch's eraser stuff (Google "The Magical Drawings of Mooney B. Finch", it's a great kid's book), nah-ah, I'm done.

While my Lizzy is home, I'm doing a "stuff" purge of the house.  I'm going to get my Sarah and Lizzy together to go through Grandma's tea cups and whatnots and decide who wants what because it drives me crazy every time I open a cabinet door in the dining room.  All the "stuff"!  Oh, and my closet - not that I'm a clothes-horse, I tend to buy art supplies before I buy clothes -  but I do hang on to pieces because I like the fabric.  I've got some great batik-like "stuff", but I need to figure out how to re-purpose them. 

Throughout the past year I've done mini-purges here and there, in this closet and in that closet, but Lord have mercy! There's still too much "stuff"!!  I tend to approach things now as, "if I were moving tomorrow, would I take this with me?"  It works pretty good.  You really has to be honest about the question though and that can be hard because justifying why you have decided to keep the hobnail glass slipper with a chip in it, given to you by your Aunt Selma, when you were a little girl many moons ago, that you only ever find when you're moving around "stuff" in the cupboard, looking for other "stuff" just isn't working.  Yeah, that slipper is outta here... right after the Christmas tree comes down.