Babychild, once upon a time

July 1, 2010 | Posted By: Annie | 3 Comments
Filed Under Annie, Life, Our Artwork 

When Chris and I were first married (almost five years), one night when I was returning from work reeking of coffee, he surprised me with a tiny black pouf of a kitten. Which was very gracious and generous of him, he had slight allergies to them. . . but he knew I had always had a cat or two around my entire life, I suppose he wanted the brownie points. This little kitten was so funny and darling, but unfortunately he grew into a very overly sensitive cat who couldn’t handle the jealousy from the addition of another cat and a new baby . . . so piles of cat puke later, we do not have him anymore. But  I still have fond memories of him and this little painting was one of my first attempts at acrylic, and I have to say its a favorite despite my stacks of past experiments that still make me cringe. It had fallen out of its frame and I just fixed it so I thought I might show you despite it being old work.

That said, a friend on the Indie Craft Parade jury, Kevin, asked if I was going to try any new subject matter. . .to which I hesitatingly told him I was considering cats.  Hesitating because I don’t want to be a pet portrait painter, you know what I mean, and also not wanting to offend Kent in my hesitance toward the subject matter (who was sitting next to me) because he is one of those rare artists who actually render cats in wonderfully legitimate way. But, I think I might just try it, one, because this one turned out well, even when I was a younger artists, two, I really really love my cats and I like to keep my subject matter mainly familiar, three, the main reason, I love the similarities they have with owls, their movements and behaviors. I’d love to mix the two in paintings and see what happens. Actually we almost called Charlie “Owl” because it was Marsh’s only word other than Momma, and Marshall used to think Bill was an owl when he would sit outside on the window sill in the dark, his pair bright eyes the only thing you could see at night.

So there, I think I have convinced myself its ok. . . I think, now if only I could get Bill to sit still long enough. . .