2011 Cat Charity Calendar

I was planning on releasing this around the 1st of September, but Lulu is having a free shipping special until the 23rd.

It started out a few months ago for 1 charity, and has sort of morphed into a project for several charities-  Best Friends, Tabby's Place, Clowder House, and Sundown Surgery Fund.
New paintings and a few old favorites that I've been saving for such a project.  100% of the profits are donated to the charities.

Free Shipping ends on the 23rd, although they'll probably do something similar again between now and end of the year.   Calendar on Lulu- Click Here

Dogs on Roofs

Y'all know how much I enjoy flipping through photos on Flickr.

I came across this fun group pool of photos that I had to share.   
Dogs on Roofs. 

Photo by Flickr user Planeta

Photo by Flickr User  George Kouvakis

Photo by Fickr user Anhidric

Enjoy your weekend.  I am off to a family reunion.  I'll be sure to eat CAKE for everyone.

Miniature Black Yoda

Look at what some DEAR, SWEET person left on my doorstep this morning . . . . .

Probably between 4 and 6 weeks old.

Whoever was so generous with their gift, (bless their heart) , I hope they get into chiggers and fire ants. . .  on the same day.


Kitten anyone?

Painting of Luna on Yupo

Karen Weidert is an online artist friend of mine who resides near St. Louis.  She volunteers with the Clowder House Cat Foundation in St. Louis.   As I've mentioned before, I am working on a calendar project with some of Karen's photographs.

Here is her website, by the way. 


Luna is her personal cat, and I think she adopted her from Clowder House as well.

Lurve this Photo

So I decide to paint Luna for the calendar as well.  I also decided to flip the photo, mainly because the painting of Latte has her positioned on the right. Luna can go to the left.

Luna, 5x7 inches, varnished watercolor on Yupo

I'll admit, I love the reference photo, for the dramatic lighting, but I am not totally happy with this painting.  I didn't like the rattlesnake zombie pupils in the photo, so I decided to paint them similarly to another photo where the pupil was a little larger and a little more round. That might have been a mistake.

I've been looking at the eyeballs of Maybelline, Sunshine,  Leon, and Priscilla all morning. One can't glaze on Yupo without moving the color underneath, so I might play with it in photoshop, and add a little glaze of fluid acrylic to the eye(s), before it is varnished. But not too much glazing as I don't want to loose the lightness of the blue-green color.  Or I might paint her again, one never knows.

Have a nice weekend, Everyone.

I'll have my Lap Dog Super Sized, Please . . .

This in Ginger.  She thinks she's a lap dog.  She thinks she weighs only about 10 lbs, while she tries to crawl into your lap.

Truth is she weighs 110 lbs.   She's about 3, maybe 4 years old, a Mastiff Mix, can't remember the mix part without going to look at her chart.

She boarding till tomorrow.  She is here getting heartworm treatment.  Which is a little unusual as her owner had her on heartworm prevention since she was a wee 40 lbs.   She stays outside all the time, year round.  Which means she is exposed to mosquitoes more frequently than a dog that stays in the house.  Heartworms must travel through a mosquito,  the mosquito is a biological vector, so we can only guess that a few heartworm larvae got passed the development point in their life cycle where the prevention kills them.

She should be fine.  And we are switching her back to an oral heartworm medication, along with something topical for the fleas, ticks, flies, and mosquitoes. 

I think she is enjoying 2 days of lounging in the air conditioned kennel.