Kitty Portraits

Painting one of my favorite animals -  CATS

 

Orange Kitten   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

  
 I have always had cats in my life as long as I can remember.  They are the best friends in the world!  They cuddle with you and love you as long as you are good to them.  So I decided it was time to do some kitty portraits.  I have been working from a calendar given to me from Friends of Turlock Animal Shelter.  This is a great group that helps find homes for cats and dogs.  

Here are my first 6 portraits.  You might notice that I enjoy painting orange kitties!  Carrying on my exploration of ORANGE.

 

Orange Kitty with Blue Eyes   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

Paintings are $125 framed and $95 without a frame.   $40 from the sale of each painting will be donated to this dedicated group.


Send me a really good, close-up photo of your cat and I will consider doing a portrait of YOUR loving kitty.   

 

Little Cutie   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

Lucinda   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

Susie   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

Blue-eyed Beauty   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

What a sweetheart!



















"Lucinda" seemed like a good name for this pretty cat with green eyes. 
SOLD!  THIS PAINTING SOLD AT THE MONTEREY COUNTY ARTISTS OPEN STUDIO TOUR!  GONE TO A GOOD HOME!















And this little sweetie looked like a "Susie" to me! 

















This handsome cat looks a lot like my own cat  Lacy.  I have yet to paint Lacy, but that is on my list of things to do... soon!














Check out my website at: www.RhettsStudio.com

Time for Eggs

Egg Challenge

Duck Visits Egg   6" x 6"   oil on gessoboard

 I have seen paintings by other artists of a broken egg on a plate and thought that might be a good challenge.
Capturing that "wet" look is interesting, but the most difficult part was the egg shell.  I added one of my nasturtium flowers and leaf to give a spark of color.  The blueberries are freshly picked from my blueberry bush outside my studio door!  They are really good and make interesting shapes.  
Daily Painting #42

Egg and Blueberries   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

 Here is another attempt at painting an egg.
Daily Painting #43

Let Me Hold Your Tea Bag     6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

Here is my 3rd Daily Painting Still life with an egg.  I added the white tea cup, ceramic tea bag holder and flowers.  A fun collection of shapes, colors and textures!
Daily Painting #45














Paintings are $125 each framed.
Check out my website at:  www.RhettsStudio.com

Thank you for looking at my blog.

 

Painting Red Apples

Red Apples

Two and Half Apples  6x6 oil

 Ok, so I digress from my orange.  Just had to try my hand at some red apples I bought.  Discovered that Rose Madder and Pyrrol Red make just the color I needed!  I love the turquoise and the wall paper.
DAILY PAINTING #39

Apples and a Duck   6x6 oil

 So I had to try it again. This time my little glass duck had to get into the act. I think it is from the 40s.  Cute little guy.

Apples and Blueberries    6x6   oil

 DAILY PAINTING #40















My beautiful blueberries are getting ripe  so I was out picking them.  They cried out to be included in the next painting!  So here they are.   Ooooo they are good!  The blue cobalt bottle is old.
 DAILY PAINTING #41

Please Don't Eat the Blueberries    6x6   oil

I bought this little chick at the Dollar Store at Easter.  It is fluffy and bobs up and down as it quacks!  I hope it doesn't eat my blueberries!

The blue cup was left over from a trip from my Aussie daughter. 
DAILY PAINTING #42












All these paintings are $95 unframed  $125 framed. 

Painting at Tor House in Carmel 2016

Plein Air Painting at the 2016 Tor House Garden Party
    May 1st, 2016

 Robinson Jeffers house in Carmel is a fascinating place to visit and I highly recommend it!  You can see more photos of the house and grounds here:  http://www.torhouse.org/

Take the tour if you can.
This was my second opportunity painting on these lovely grounds during their annual Garden Party.

 The weather was nice, except for the wind!  And it was blustery!  The only place I was able to set up was near the gate and luckily, it had a nice view.  The roses by the gate were magnificent!  

Visitors were so nice and came up behind me to watch me paint. This year they have note cards of my last painting in the gift shop.  These delightful ladies kept asking me to sign my note card!  They said they collect anything having to do with Robinson Jeffers!  So sweet!

I had not painted in plein air for a long time, and I sure was rusty!  I forgot my paint in the car, left out some important colors, and my water bottle leaked!  Yikes!  Then I decided to paint on a 12" x 9" panel.  And after the painting was done, I realized I had forgotten to bring a wet painting carrier for that size!  How do you get a very wet oil painting to your car in the wind?  I am most grateful to two other artists who helped me out!   

When I got home, I realized my painting was really bad!  So after re-working it in the studio, I feel a little better about it.  I will post it when I get a chance to photograph it.  

Another day in the life of a plein air painter!  

So here is my final version of my painting at Tor House during the 2016 Garden Party.
I call it:
"By the Garden Gate at Tor House"

Those roses were really magnificent with brilliant yellow, orange, red and magenta!  Wow were they beautiful!  And the white calla lilies were a lovely contrast. 

Here is the painting I did the first time I painted at Tor House in 2010.  I had set up an hour early on the lawn next to the Hawk Tower and proceeded to paint the stone house.  I was working toward painting the garden, when they opened the gate and about a hundred people flooded into the small garden!  I could no longer even see the beautiful gardens!  So I had to make it up from what I had remembered.  Then I noticed all these folks resting on the bench and I thought "Why not add them to the painting!"  So I did.  This note card is available in the Tor House Gift Shop and I have the original hanging in my living room!  It was a lovely day and hard to believe it was 6 years ago! 

Open Studio 2016

Wonderful turn-out for my Open Studio April 23 & 24, 2016

 Greg Frazier and I pose in front of my Daily Paintings display.  The pegboard panels worked very well for displaying the 6"x 6" paintings.

 Here is part of our set-up.  We were resting and waiting for the crowd to show up.  Our weather was good which was a nice change from the last few years with wind and rain.

Greg had some wonderful wood pieces: puzzle boxes, wooden pens, puzzles and other items of fun.  He does such nice work.  I especially like his burl bowls with the abalone inlays.  So pretty!

 Visitors had the opportunity to choose from boxes of unframed paintings and try them out in frames.  I also had matted original work, matted reproductions, paper cranes, and note cards from which to choose.

 Here is one of my visitors choosing a matted original.  She also chose one of my Daily Paintings!


I want to thank all those who helped set up and take down, and store away all my stuff!