A Garden Party Summer Art Exhibit

The Studio of
Bernadette E. Kazmarski

presents

A Garden Party Summer Art Exhibit

And there’s no need to go anywhere—it’s all on your computer!

I’ve decided to add a few more new originals and a few prints to the mix so I’m extending my annual Garden Party Summer Art Exhibit through the end of August. The art includes some of last year’s original en plein air paintings and  framed originals from previous years as well as framed and unframed archival prints and canvas prints of summer-themed artwork, all in my Etsy shop.

I’m offering a special discount for the month of August, 25% off anything in my Landscapes and Still Lifes Gallery. Just use the code “GARDENPARTY” for your special discount. I’ve featured a few in this post—click any image to find out more about it or visit my Landscapes and Still Lifes Gallery.

If you are interested in receiving my Art and Merchandise e-newsletter, click here to sign up. I don’t do anything with your e-mail but send the occasional e-newsletter, I never share or sell or use in any other way. I’d rather be doing artwork!

April Cloud Study framed original pastel.

Main Street Sunday digital print.

Red Climbers framed print.

Spring Morning Leaves original pastel.

Fruit framed original pastel.

Evening on the Beach canvas print.

Lilacs and Laundry framed original pastel.

And there are many more! Click any image to find out more about it or visit my Landscapes and Still Lifes Gallery, and don’t forget to use your “GARDENPARTY14” discount code for 25% off your purchases.

If you’d like to sign up to receive this e-newsletter, which I usually deliver seasonally, click here to add your e-mail address.

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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile 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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Several Original Sketches Sold

“Blending”, watercolor.

Over on my feline art sit, The Creative Cat, I post a daily sketch of my cats among other images, photos and informative articles and stories. The sketches began as a way for me to get a little practice each day, completed in the moment and posted that day. They’ve grown into quite the feature and all these images have become new products as framed art and on handmade and printed products. You can read more about my daily cat sketches in the article Muse Medallions and a Special Award in the CWA Communications Contest.

I love being able to send a piece of original artwork, knowing these images of my cats are off in someone’s home. I always have ideas for mats and frames while I’m working, and do the framing myself. Also, once an original has been purchased, it’s also added to the gallery of prints for sale in my Etsy shop.Above is “Blending” and below is “Clash of Titans“, both headed for the same home, someone who has purchased several other framed daily sketches.

“Clash of Titans”, pastel and charcoal.

Below is “Tonal Nap”, which went off to the same home as the two sketches above a few months ago.

“Tonal Nap”, pastel.

The photos document the mats and frames for future reference since prints of paintings often work well with the same mat and frame as the original—sometimes I like to put one together for myself.

Below, “Vigilant Nap”, came out just as I’d wanted, with two mats that coordinate with the paper and some of the colors and textures in the sketch, but it’s overall monochromatic.

You can also find “Vigilant Nap” as the November image in my 12 Sketches of Cats 2014 Fine Art Wall Calendar—read more below!

“Vigilant Nap”, charcoal.

“Their Faces to the Sun”, ink and watercolor.

“Their Faces in the Sun”, above, and “Blue Purple Cats”, below, made their way to the same home, one of our friends in Canada, who has also purchased a few other sketches.

“blue Purple Cats”, ink and watercolor.

Below, I deliver “Highlighted Silhouette” to a friend and customer who is Fromage and Cranberry‘s human—does Fromage think the sketch is her? Or another interloper house panther? And what does Cranberry think of a painting of a black cat in her home?

Fromage inspects the painting close up, which Cranberry inspects Fromage and the painting!

Framed daily sketches usually add up to between $100 and $150 which includes the sketch, the framing and the shipping. I choose the framing from all my samples here, and cut the mat and finish the framing myself in my studio. If you are interested in an original sketch or any other artwork, just send me a message. it’s difficult to post all the sketches I do on Etsy or elsewhere since there are so many, but I often try to anticipate the ones others will want to purchase, and I sometimes mat and frame the ones I like personally.

Prints of these sketches will now be available as well in my Etsy shop, and in addition to the image itself I’ve also posted a photo of the framed original as an idea for framing a print, and mentioned that cost as well, just to see how that works.

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12 Sketches of Cats 2014 Wall Calendar

“12 Sketches of Cats 2014 Calendar”

If you’d like a few of my daily sketches but prefer to purchase prints, I have a deal for you. This calendar includes 14 images printed in archival inks on acid-free paper in a lovely calendar you can enjoy all year. Considering that I typically sell prints at this size and level of quality for $15.00 each, 14 prints would be $210.00. But this calendar, priced at $45.00, is a perfect idea if you want to purchase a number of prints, and $10.00 of each purchase is donated to a different feline rescue each month—right now it’s FosterCat.

I’ve always admired oversized “art calendars”, the ones where the art is foremost and the calendar just an incidental means of presenting it. Calendars are printed on quality text or cover stock and are only printed on one side of the page with plenty of clear space around the artwork because the image is intended to be framable with nothing printed on the back.

And so 12 Sketches of Cats is digitally printed in the same archival inks and acid-free natural 100# smooth cover stock I use for the digital art prints I sell. Each page is 11″ x 17″ so there is plenty of space to have the art at or near its native size with room for the name and information about the art with the calendar at the bottom. The calendar is spiral-bound at the top with a hole drilled just beneath the spiral so you display one page at a time.

In addition to keeping art near its native size I’ve also sized most of the artwork so it will easily fit a standard frame size. Some images, such as “Shades of Gray” and “World Cat” are smaller than the originals to fit the page. I chose sketches for popularity and narrowed them down for a variety of style and medium. All are in color but there is one bonus pencil sketch; no charcoal or ink sketches seemed to fit with the color art, so of course that might be a calendar of its own someday.

Read more about the 12 Sketches of Cats 2014 Fine Art Wall Calendar here.

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Mimi manages things with the mat cutter.

Take a look at other new merchandise and featured artwork.

Once a week on Thursday I feature something new in my “shop”, whether that’s here on The Creative Cat, in my Etsy shop, on my main website or even at one of the bricks and mortar shops that carry my work.

Read about creating custom items

Find out more about creating custom items for your own home using the images you see here. Visit the “Ordering Custom Art” page to see samples and read bout how to order.

 

It’s all done under the close and careful supervision of my studio cats!

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Subscribe to The Creative Cat e-newsletter for specials on exclusively feline-themed art and merchandise

 

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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile 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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© 2014 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

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May Featured Artwork and Desktop Calendar: Mimi’s Sunbath

“Mimi’s Sunbath” 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors

Mimi enjoys the warmth of the sun on her one side, and the reflection of it from the cabinet on her other.

Kelly on the Windowsill, ink and watercolor © B.E. Kazmarski

Yes, this was yesterday’s Daily Sketch Reprise, but even as I posted it I knew I’d made up my mind what would be my May featured artwork and desktop calendar. I’d been undecided, choosing among six possibilities out of daily sketches that seemed to explore the color and feel of a sunny morning in may when leaves are sprouting and flowers are blooming and even the rain falls, and I was even considering coming up with a totally new piece of artwork.

The debate came down to this sketch and “Kelly on the Windowsill”, both reminiscent of this time of year in color and style, the flowers, the sun, the sky, the leaves, and even the bare branches in some cases echoed in the ink lines. I love to remember Kelly whenever I can, but looking them over I decided I’d actually featured Kelly no fewer than four times in desktop calendars, and that in only two years; someone else could have a chance.

There are many things I like about this sketch. Mimi’s nose, ears and whiskers, for instance, I just like the way they worked out, I feel I captured something essentially Mimi in that nose and, especially, her whisker pad with its almost angular shape, and her tiny ears. Her shape in general and the patterns of shadows and light, what was that you said about a black cat? Hmm. And I just like the way I handled the ink lines and watercolor pencil lines and washes, the patterns of lines on her back that described her fur, and the interesting angle of the foreshortened cabinet as well as all the exaggerated colors that really do work. I can tell you that the cabinet was much more difficult than the cat! Really, though it looks complicated, and it is, I guess I was warmed up that day because I visualized, I sketched, and there it was. I am rarely that lucky.

Detail of my favorite parts of “Mimi’s Sunbath”.

I really liked this as an ink sketch and almost left it with just Mimi, but when I had looked at Mimi in this very spot I envisioned an ink drawing with watercolor washes. I began the sketch on watercolor paper, and so I finished it. I like it just as much.

This has both deep shadows and bright highlights, and both direct and reflected light, a challenge for me in ink, for sure! But while Mimi did move her head to face front, look up at me and look behind herself, she sat for long enough for me to get the light and shadow on her torso sketched in with pen, then a bit of watercolor pencil scribbled on top.

And occasionally I like to use a piece of artwork that captures the texture of the paper. One of the things we miss in digital art and viewing images on the computer is texture and dimension, and it’s one of the things that, for me, makes art done by hand on paper feel so real. I hope you get the feeling of depth and dimension in looking at the texture from the watercolor paper, along with my sketchy lines, in this month’s featured artwork.

When I begin with a new medium I often visualize in that medium for days as I grow accustomed to it, so I’m not surprised to have two sketches in a row in the same medium and style, after Kelly on the Windowsill. I had grown accustomed to these watercolor pencils, later began to allow myself a wider brush than the No. 4 round to dissolve and spread the paint from my sketchy pencil lines. I have two more in this set which I did in the month of May 2012 for a total of four sketches that capture the brilliant sun and deep shadows, the light and the colors of spring days (read more about these below, as well as other art), and not long after this I went on to use this illustration style for a couple of commercial projects and then offered it as a commissioned portrait medium. Thanks, once again, to my fine felines for leading me somewhere I didn’t realize I’d needed to go.

As always, I will miss the prior month’s desktop calendar, seeing Sophie peeking at me from the lace curtain with the forget-me-nots blooming underneath her on a fine early spring evening, but I will enjoy exploring the lines and colors of “Mimi’s Sunbath” for an entire month to come.

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This month’s desktop calendar

I’ve worked this image into a desktop calendar for you to enjoy and use for the entire month. Looking at the downloads from previous months and averaging out which dimensions fit which devices, I have reduced the number of variations from 12 to three. It was very time-consuming to create all the variations with new devices arriving all the time, so I have one for horizontal monitors/screens, one for square monitors/screens, and one that should fit the dimensions of nearly all mobile devices. If these sizes don’t work for your device, please let me know.

How to download and use your desktop calendar

1. Click on one of the images below that matches the dimensions of your monitor to open the image in a new page.
2. For desktop computers and laptops, right-click on that image and on a desktop computer choose “save as desktop wallpaper” or “save as background” or whichever option your operating system gives you to be able to do this. You may also simply save it to your hard drive and set it as your background from there.
3. For mobile devices, download the image to your gallery then choose it as your wallpaper—this is slightly different on all devices.

Horizontal and HD monitors and screens

“Mimi’s Sunbath” 2560 x 1440 for wide and HD monitors

. . .

Square monitors and screens

“Mimi’s Sunbath” 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors

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Small Mobile Devices and Tablets

“Mimi’s Sunbath” for 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers

Click here to subscribe to The Creative Cat on your Kindle.

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Cell Phones and Smartphones

“Mimi’s Sunbath” 480 x 854 for mobile devices

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Where to find “Mimi’s Sunbath”

This sketch, matted and framed, is available for sale in my Etsy shop, as well as three others in the same style, Kelly with Grapes and Apple, Kelly on the Windowsill, and Top of the World. These are also available as a set; if you are interested in purchasing two or more, or purchasing a print, please ask.

12 Sketches of Cats Calendar

“12 Sketches of Cats 2014 Calendar”

I’ve always admired oversized “art calendars”, the ones where the art is foremost and the calendar just an incidental means of presenting it. Calendars are printed on quality text or cover stock and are only printed on one side of the page with plenty of clear space around the artwork because the image is intended to be framable with nothing printed on the back.

And so 12 Sketches of Cats is digitally printed in the same archival inks and acid-free natural 100# smooth cover stock I use for the digital art prints I sell. Each page is 11″ x 17″ so there is plenty of space to have the art at or near its native size with room for the name and information about the art with the calendar at the bottom. The calendar is spiral-bound at the top with a hole drilled just beneath the spiral so you display one page at a time.

In addition to keeping art near its native size I’ve also sized most of the artwork so it will easily fit a standard frame size. Some images, such as “Shades of Gray” and “World Cat” are smaller than the originals to fit the page. I chose sketches for popularity and narrowed them down for a variety of style and medium. All of the images but one are in color; none of the pencil, charcoal or ink sketches seemed to fit with the color art in the calendar, so of course that might be a calendar of its own someday.

And there are actually 14 sketches if you count the cover, and there’s a bonus sketch on the title page that’s the one pencil sketch, but because covers see more wear and the title page image is a little small I’m keeping the title at 12. The art included in the calendar is:

Cover: Mimi’s Sunbath

Title page: A Tangle of Cats at the Door

January: Winter Light

February: Shades of Gray

March: Catamount Brushmore

April: Two Cats After van Gogh

May: In Afternoon Sun

June: Lazy Saturday Afternoon

July: Stanley with Geraniums

August: Happy Birthday, Andy Warhol

September: Three Warm Cats on a Cool Ground

October: Two in a Basket

November: Vigilant Nap

December: World Cat

This calendar costs a little more than the typical calendar because of the size and quality, and the value of what’s in it—I generally sell my prints for $10.00 to $25.00 each depending on the size, but in this calendar you get 14 prints if you count each image, for one price—$2.50 for each of 14 prints plus $10.00 to help FosterCat, Inc. house and support the cats in their system of foster homes, find homes for the cats they’ve rescued and help sponsor many cats rescued by Pittsburgh Feral Cat Movement.

Order a calendar now

Calendars are $45.00 and as mentioned above I will donate $10.00 of each sale to FosterCat, Inc. Not only has FosterCat been doing its typical wonderful work in rescuing and finding forever homes for cats of all ages through its foster home-only all-volunteer organization, they have also been helping kittens and cats find homes who have been rescued by Pittsburgh Feral Cat Movement, which allows all those who volunteer as a rescue to foster more cats and kittens.

Click here to order a calendar through my Etsy shop.

 

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Take a look at other featured artwork and desktop calendar posts.

Each month I feature a piece of feline artwork from the archives to the present day, discuss its history and process, and set it up as a free downloadable desktop calendar for just about every electronic device available.

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Click here to see daily sketches, click here to see daily photographs

click here to see other artwork featured on The Creative Cat

or visit Fine Art and Portraiture on my main website.

If you are interested in a print of this image, check my Etsy shop 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.

 

Subscribe to My E-newsletter

Subscribe to The Creative Cat e-newsletter for specials on exclusively feline-themed art and merchandise.

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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile 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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Inspired by felines you know! Visit Portraits of Animals on Etsy.

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© 2014 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

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Daily Sketch: Their Faces in the Sun

“Their Faces in the Sun”, watercolor and ink, 5″ x 7″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Mimi and Mewsette settled in the sun from the window on the landing, both of them enjoying the wash of the warm light on their faces as the shadows crept up over their backs.

Often, big soft Mewsette settles somewhere and soon I see little Mimi tucked up against her, two girls enjoying some girl time. So they are, here.

I wanted to exploit the variations in their coat colors and just play with shadows and highlights here. Mimi is quite the cocoa kitty, while Mewsette is a much cooler black, tending toward blue. In this brilliant yellow sunlight, the deepest shadows were a complimentary purple, secondary shadows behind them were not necessarily green but that little experiment worked anyway, and the minor shadows where the yellow tones down and begins to shade to orange were just areas where I felt orange was needed.

Ink lines went in last, unlike the usual technique of drawing the cats then painting in. I sketched them, literally, with a broad brush and let the colors flow together. There is one area I am unhappy with, and I need to manage the flow on the paper a little better, on Mewsette down near the floor, that floating edge has no context and should be softer. I didn’t realize how dry the paper was already. I’ll need to be more careful. If I hadn’t said anything probably most people would not have noticed it, but for the sake of the artists who follow me—be more aware than me!

One year on, I still love this little painting, and I remember the days when I aspired to sketch like this in ink, and apply and blend watercolors so freely. A few years ago I would have either produced a rather insecure much more detailed sketch with more realistic colors, or total mud. Practice makes perfect, even if perfection is loosening up rather than tightening details. I’m so happy with my daily sketch practice; even when I don’t post a new one, as today, I am still working on other artwork, so in a way I’m still practicing!

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“Their Faces to the Sun”, ink and watercolor.

Where to find this art

I sold the original of this sketch to a regular collector from Winnipeg, but I still offer 5″ x 7″ digital prints in my Etsy shop.

I’ll be glad to mat and frame your print, or mount it on a wood block, just let me know.

I’m also planning a few new keepsake boxes with this sketch, and a few other ideas too. We’ll see what happens!

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Click here to see other daily sketches.

For a gallery of the ones available for sale, visit my Etsy shop in the “Cat Art and Prints” section.

Read about the reason for the daily sketches in Two Years of Daily Sketches.

And download your free desktop wallpaper calendar for computer or mobile, usually based on a daily sketch.

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A collection of 34 images of feline artwork

Feline Style Sampler

Daily sketches, illustrations, commissioned portraits all in a small coil-bound gift book.

Click here or on the image to read more

or find this book in my Etsy shop.

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Browse some rescued cats and kittens!

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Also browse Featured Artwork

I also feature artwork which has not been commissioned, especially my paintings of my own cats. If you’d like to read more about artwork as I develop it, about my current portraits and art assignments and even historic portraits and paintings, I feature commissioned portrait or other piece of artwork on Wednesday. Choose the categories featured artwork.

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Subscribe to My E-newsletter

Subscribe to The Creative Cat e-newsletter for specials on exclusively feline-themed art and merchandise.

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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile 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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Inspired by felines you know! Visit Portraits of Animals on Etsy.

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© 2014 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

 

Featured Artwork: “Interior With Cat”

“Interior With Cat”, watercolor, 8″ x 12″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Reference photo for painting.

This is a painting I’ve been intending to introduce here for a while, though I painted it in 2000, right about this time of year. With its cheery reds, the bright sun coming in the door and the paperwhite narcissus sprouting out of the pot in the middle of the table, it’s always dated to February for me. It was also one of the first paintings I did after I’d left my day job and began working at home, and I remember the almost guilty feeling of taking a couple of hours in the afternoon to paint, which I’d dreamed of doing for years and hoped to make a part of my daily schedule.

Those calendula, which had braved a pretty hard frost, opened fully when the sun shone in the windows the next day, and that was the first inspiration for this piece. I photographed the calendula, intending to paint only them and have a number of closeups of the flowers. But when I looked over the photographs in preparation for painting, I noticed the cloth, the paperwhites in the pot, the light glare on the table, and of course, Sophie at the door, but I really intended to keep it as just a still life. It developed into a much larger work than I had intended, but it was a fun challenge to create something from a different perspective and in a different style than I had before, visualizing a bright, simplified watercolor. I pictured an “interior”, not just a still life of objects in an arrangement but a moment in time involving more of the space, and I really tried hard to keep Sophie out of it, but it just wasn’t complete until I painted her in, hence the title, “Interior With Cat”.

Being able to begin painting as soon I had the photos developed was another joy because many works had waited years to come to fruition as I worked a day job and had freelance assignments at night.

I enjoyed painting the flowers on that cloth, in part because those flowers were actually handpainted as well. The cloth was woven linen handpainted in Poland, one of the souvenirs of traditional work my mother’s sister had brought back in her travels to find family in Ukraine and Poland; I treasure those items. Though this is brightly colored and might work better for summer, I like it for winter because those bright colors enliven short winter days.

Detail of cloth, calendula and pots.

I managed to have fresh calendula flowers as described above, and I also remember that we had a mild winter that first winter I worked at home, and the calendula was growing in a sheltered spot near my chimney and continued producing flower buds. The other flowers are paperwhite narcissus, one of many flowering bulbs I had always forced in the house in spring to put around on all the windowsills and tables—by February I was ready for blooming flowers and bright colors—and also to place outdoors in my windowboxes (a little more on that, below).

I did enjoy painting those marbles too, in fact I could have done one painting of just those marbles. I found dozens in the yard in the house I had rented, so excited at possibly finding truly vintage marbles, but they were not vintage, actually quite recent. Still, I’ve always loved having them in the bottom of a vase or a jar of plant cuttings and still use them for that today.

Detail of glass vase with marbles.

And as I’d mentioned I had not intended to have a cat in this painting. As I worked my way around, though, and looked at the composition I realized I’d have a weak, rather blank spot in the upper left because just the door wasn’t strong enough to balance the patterns, shapes and colors at the bottom. So, in keeping with the loose style of this painting, and with the fact that Sophie and the door are both blurry, I added a loose rendition of Sophie looking out the door. I couldn’t picture it without her, and I’m glad I have her immortalized in another of my paintings.

Detail of Sophie looking out the door.

I was very pleased with the looser, more decorative quality of this painting. Up to then all my watercolors had been very tight, detailed, realistic images. Of course I had set goals for my art career when I’d started working at home, and this was one of them—loosen up!

One other thing to note with this painting—paperwhite narcissus and most other plants growing from bulbs can be very toxic to cats, causing renal failure in a matter of hours. I knew about lilies at the time, but not about other bulbs, and I force-bloomed daffodils, tulips, crocuses, hyacinth, snowdrops, squills, you name it. I know my cats had chewed on them through the years because they chewed on everything, and I never noticed any issues. A couple of years after this, however, I suddenly lost my dilute tortie Nikka in February to acute renal failure and I will always wonder if this was what caused it and I removed all of these materials from my home. If I force blooms for display now, it is done outside, in my cold frame, and they stay outside too.

Original, prints, cards and merchandise

“Interior With Cat”, matted and framed.

“Interior with Cat” is new in my Etsy shop and the original is still available. I used two elements in the mat and frame that I liked in the cloth pattern: the red outline around the outside, and the outlines on the fruit, which were actually a deep olive green but I used black core mats for the outline effect, and finished it with a narrow white painted wood frame. Click here to see the original on Etsy.

I also have it available as a full-size 8 x 12 digital art print or an 8×10 digital art print that will fit in a premade frame by trimming a bit off the top of the image. “Interior With Cat” is also one of the images included in my  Feline Greetings Art Cards as a 5 x 7 image.

I can also have a full-size giclée made upon request. And I will soon have keepsake boxes and wall-mounted art in this design.

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Also browse Featured Artwork

I also feature artwork which has not been commissioned, especially my paintings of my own cats. If you’d like to read more about artwork as I develop it, about my current portraits and art assignments and even historic portraits and paintings, I feature commissioned portrait or other piece of artwork on Wednesday. Choose the categories featured artwork.

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Subscribe to My E-newsletter

Subscribe to The Creative Cat e-newsletter for specials on exclusively feline-themed art and merchandise.

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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile 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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Inspired by felines you know! Visit Portraits of Animals on Etsy.

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© 2014 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Commissioned Portrait: Holly on the Rocker, a Portrait I Couldn’t Resist

Holly on the Rocker, watercolor, 8″ x 12″, 2008 © B.E. Kazmarski

Holly is a congenial little calico who greets you at the door and knows she’s the center of attention. On the back of the rocker Holly is accessible to everyone who walks through the room and can see most of the first floor of the house.

You can read about Holly’s rescue in yesterday’s story, A Great Rescue: Holly and a little about Holly herself and her rescuers. Holly’s mom and dad are friends of mine and long-time cat rescuers as I described in the story “A Bridge Between the Ages”.

Detail of Holly.

The scene of this portrait is pretty much what I was looking at when I visited one bright winter afternoon, and while my portraits usually feature the animal subject pr0minently in this case I wanted to capture the colorful and beautiful, warm and welcoming feel of their home where the cats go where they please despite all the pretty stuff.

And I decided that I wanted to paint this as a watercolor instead of my usual pastel, I simply visualized it that way in the moment. I remember thinking, “Neat watercolor….I should probably take some pictures…” I showed the photos to Judi and asked her if she’d mind if I painted from one of them—I’m always sensitive about the interiors of peoples’ homes—and she said that was fine with her and she’d probably be interested in the painting too.

So the scene was pretty much as you see. I was excited at the challenge of the window and the footstool as well as Holly. I used a watercolor block instead of a free sheet of watercolor paper, and the sheets are all attached around the edges and stay fairly flat. The block of paper I have is 9″ x 12″, perfect for the smaller size I wanted to paint.

Detail of rocker and footstool.

I’ve always been a little uncertain with watercolor and usually traced the scene in this way to make sure I could keep things in perspective (that was why it was such a big deal when I painted “Lazy Saturday Afternoon” without pencil lines, it took a lot of practice). I enlarged the photo to the size of the paper and, covering the back of the paper with the side of the pencil lead, I placed the sheet on top of the watercolor pad and lightly traced the outlines of the image from the printout so that the lead would transfer from the back of my printout to the watercolor paper. There’s always a danger of actually impressing the paper with a dent from the pencil which gets in the way of painting, so this step has to go easy. I also don’t always want the traced pencil lines and in this case I was sure I didn’t because the details were so fine. Tracing lightly not only doesn’t impress the surface of the paper, it also just leaves a faint pencil line which is easy to paint over or erase.

Detail of windows.

Then to choose the colors and techniques. I lightly painted over each area in a base wash of color to block it off, erasing pencil lines where the colors would be light enough to see them. Generally with watercolor, unlike pastel where I nearly always use a colored paper and work the white back into the area for greater depth, the watercolor paper is white, and anything pure white in the painting is not painted at all, and believe it or not it was difficult to remember not to paint Holly. And even though I enjoy working out animal fur in pastel I was looking forward to her clear calico markings done with a brush and liquid.

The chair is upholstered in velvet and that texture is a natural for pastel and I’ve done plenty of wood tones in pastel, and it was exciting to translate my usual methods from a medium I’m so accustomed to into watercolor. This can be confusing, visualizing one thing but accustomed to creating it in a totally different method! Once I had practiced a bit and was accustomed to the techniques of layering colors to mix and blend and simply deepen with each successive layer, then washing off areas for soft blends and highlights, I was glad for my narrow liner brushes when it came to Holly’s markings, the flowers on the footstool, the lead in the window and the shadows on the door at right.

Detail of the tree and the door.

One thing I’m a little disappointed in with the reproduction is the right-hand window next to the stained glass window. It’s a plain glass window behind a mini-blind with lots of light coming through, and I carefully painted the shadow of each horizontal slat. You can see a trace of them, but I don’t think you get the feel of the blind. The only reason I mention it is I decided to paint the blind because I felt that area needed a pattern to balance the rest of the painting. With the heavy leafy darkness of the ficus tree on the left, the right side needs a pattern as well. But that’s why studying original art is important, while looking at prints is nice.

And to be perfectly honest, I have always wished I had thought change that blue terry hand towel to something more Victorian, a shawl perhaps. I had intended to when I was visualizing, but forgot when it came to transferring the image and didn’t remember until it was pretty much in place. I did try to remove some of the paint in preparation for a change, but the paper started to show too much wear and tear from reworking. But I can live with this!

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About Judi and her business(es)…

Judi with Hilda

Judi is a friend of mine and a customer for my business, so visit the website she and I designed and see if anything strikes your fancy, and if you are local to Pittsburgh, visit her shop Carnegie Antiques where I had my little shop in the back room and also the estate sales she sets up and hosts for her customers.

You can see a little more of her lovely home and photos of her cats in “A Bridge Between the Ages”, and you can also see other of her cats in Out in the Garden, one of my favorites, and sweet since the subject, Houdini, is now gone, and Emerson, which I took just a few weeks ago when I checked on him while Judi was out for a long day with an estate sale.

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Prints, note cards and more featuring this artwork

I offer a signed digital print of this painting in archival inks on matte-finish cover stock, centered on a sheet at least 11.5″ x 14.5″ so that you can slip it into a frame with an 11″ x 14″ mat. I can always have prints made for you in other sizes or on canvas or other materials, and I can also custom frame your print or custom cut a mat for a frame you already own. Visit my Etsy shop for details about prints. Visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on ordering a custom product.

This image is also available in my set of Feline Greetings Art Cards on Etsy. You can also purchase a single card or a dozen in a box on my website, and I’d be glad to make up a special box for you, just ask.

And I’m currently designing two completely new products with this image and I’m so excited but I have to wait until my trials with them work. Hopefully I’ll be able to share them come April!

You can also find this image at my Fine Art America site

You can also visit my Fine Art America site for other types and sizes of prints of this painting, including canvas and acrylic and matted and frame.

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About Great Rescues Calendar and Gift Book and Great Rescues Day Book

Great Rescues Day Book

Holly is one of the rescued cats in my Great Rescues Day Book, an undated monthly journal to record the dates of birthdays, anniversaries and events featuring sixteen of my commissioned portraits of rescued cats along with their rescue stories.

This book is built from Great Rescues Calendar and Gift Book, the original 16-month calendar published in 2011 to inaugurate my series of rescue stories related to the portraits I’ve painted over the years.

Click here or on the image of the book at left, or either of the links above to read more.

Also, read more about Great Rescues families, those who appear in each of the two volumes so far. I’ll be featuring one story each month corresponding with the portrait that appears in the book for that month. That means there are four extra, and I’ll slip those in when the story itself feels appropriate.

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Take a look at other portraits and read other stories

Read articles here on The Creative Cat featuring current and past commissioned portraits.

Read about how I create commissioned portraits.

Commissioned Cat Portraits Samantha, pastel, 1994 © B.E. Kazmarski

Commissioned Dog Portraits Sophie and Ellie, pastel, 2009 © B.E. Kazmarski

Portraits of My Cats After Dinner Nap, pastel, 1996 © B.E. Kazmarski

Visit my website to see portraits of my cats, commissioned cats, commissioned dogs, people and a demonstration of how I put a portrait together from photos.

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Download a Brochure

My Portraits Brochure

My brochure is an 8.5″ x 11″ two-page full-color PDF that half-folds when it’s all printed out, showing examples of portraits with an explanation of my process and basic costs.

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Purchase a Gift Certificate

Sample Commissioned Portrait Certificate

I offer gift certificates for portraits in any denomination beginning at $125.00, which is the basic cost of a portrait; the recipient is responsible for any amount the portrait costs over $125.00.

The certificate itself is 8.5″ x 11″ and features a collage of portrait images with the recipient’s and giver’s names, printed on parchment cover stock. The whole thing is packaged in a pocket folder and includes a brochure, a letter from me to the recipient and several business cards.The certificate package can be easily mailed or wrapped as a gift and shipped directly to your recipient.

I can also make it downloadable if you’re in a hurry.

Portrait certificates are a minimum of $125.00 because that is the minimum cost of a portrait.

Certificates are good for up to one year after issue.

You can purchase gift certificates from my Etsy shop if you are also purchasing other animal-inspired merchandise.

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Also browse Featured Artwork

I also feature artwork which has not been commissioned, especially my paintings of my own cats. If you’d like to read more about artwork as I develop it, about my current portraits and art assignments and even historic portraits and paintings, I feature commissioned portrait or other piece of artwork on Wednesday. Choose the categories featured artwork.

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Featured Artwork

If you’d like to read more about artwork as I develop it, about my current portraits and at assignments and even historic portraits and paintings, each week I feature a piece of artwork on Wednesday and a new product on Thursday. Choose the category for featured artwork.

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Browse some rescued cats and kittens!

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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile 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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Inspired by felines you know! Visit Portraits of Animals on Etsy.

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© 2014 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

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!

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A Garden Party Summer Art Exhibit

The Studio of
Bernadette E. Kazmarski

presents

A Garden Party Summer Art Exhibit

And there’s no need to go anywhere—it’s all on your computer!

I’m featuring several new original en plein air paintings plus framed originals from previous years as well as framed and unframed archival prints and canvas prints of summer-themed artwork, all in my Etsy shop.

I’m offering a special discount for the month of August, 25% off anything in my Landscapes and Still Lifes Gallery. Just use the code “GARDENPARTY” for your special discount. I’ve featured a few in this post—click any image to find out more about it or visit my Landscapes and Still Lifes Gallery.

I’ve spent the past year focusing on building my following for feline and animal art, writing and poetry on The Creative Cat and now I’ve hit the trail again and I’ll be publishing seasonally with new and existing art and photography as well as other inspirations.

As always, if you’re no longer interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please use the unsubscribe link below. If you are interested in receiving The Creative Cat e-newsletter, click here to see a sample, and use the sign-up link to join the list. I don’t do anything with your e-mail but send the occasional e-newsletter, I never share or sell or use in any other way. I’d rather be doing artwork!

April Cloud Study framed original pastel.

Main Street Sunday digital print.

Red Climbers framed print.

Sunset on the Bay original watercolor.

Spring Morning Leaves original pastel.

Fruit framed original pastel.

Evening on the Beach canvas print.

Lilacs and Laundry framed original pastel.

And there are many more! Click any image to find out more about it or visit my Landscapes and Still Lifes Gallery, and don’t forget to use your “GARDENPARTY” discount code for 25% off your purchases.

If you’d like to sign up to receive this e-newsletter, which I usually deliver seasonally, click here to add your e-mail address.

Commissioned Portrait: Veronica’s Tulips, with Schnauzer

“Veronica’s Tulips,” watercolor, 16″ x 22″, 2008 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

I’ve referenced this painting a few other times in posts about commissioned portraits around Mother’s Day, and while it may simply look like a painting of a vibrant vase of tulips, it was actually her choice of how to combine two things she loved into a custom piece of artwork.

I had painted a watercolor of tulips in in 1996; it was popular as a print, then the original was purchased as well. When the Veronica of the title said she’d like to purchase the original, I had to tell her it had been sold but that I could always paint something custom just for her. We discussed the flowers and the colors it would have, the general tones, indoors by a window or outdoors in a garden.

The top of the bouquet with the Battenberg lace curtains.

But she had also been wanting an animal portrait, but not of one particular animal, just something to remember her love of schnauzers and the ones she’d lived with. She didn’t want two paintings, though. Well, I said, we could work that out with one painting. Somewhere in the painting we’d also have a schnauzer, not necessarily one of hers, but preferably silver gray and definitely with floppy, unclipped ears. And she was happy to have a piece of customized art that could combine the animal art she’d always wanted with the painting of flowers she’d always wanted.

I collected my photos of flowers and outdoor gardens and took even more (imagine that), found bits and pieces from seed catalogs, department store catalogs and any other place I could find bouquets and vases and curtains and tables and garden benches and so on. I had also recently painted a small portrait of a schnauzer for a friend (someday I’ll review that painting) and asked her if I could use her photos as reference.

Detail of tulips and table.

My first thought was the schnauzer lounging out in the garden but no ideas worked out in that theme. I had the schnauzer on a chair next to the flowers, on a window seat and other possibilities, working them all out in Photoshop so she and I could both see well ahead of time what the painting would look like.

Bbut in the end we wanted to take the emphasis off of one particular schnauzer—and at that size the dog would be recognizable—and put the emphasis on the tulips. Since it would be a fairly large painting I thought about placing the dog inside a picture frame either on the wall or on the tabletop within the painting, and the frame on the tabletop worked perfectly. I added the red pillow and red bow to draw your eye to that area and make sure viewers saw the schnauzer.

Detail of the schnauzer in the picture frame.

Why don’t I do more of these if they are so popular? It’s a big investment in time—I might work on one tulip for a total of an hour over the course of working the painting, blocking it in, adding detail, then regularizing the light and shadow over the entire painting. But go ahead, make me study and paint flowers for hours on end! I love every single minute of it. For this painting I used a basic bouquet, but added all my favorite colors and types of tulips. If I’m going to spend that much time on them, I might as well paint what I like.

And as I spend the time I think of the illustrators in previous centuries who painted botanicals, those detailed drawings and paintings of flowers that became the color plates in books that even today people collect. Many of these painters were women because this was considered a suitable employment for a woman but they received very little notice for their work, and yet they painted on for the love of it. I have a book entitled Women of Flowers: A Tribute to Victorian Women Illustrators that gives life to all the talented women who made a living but who never saw their names in print. I am nowhere near their level, and my admiration for them is great.

Just a section of the tulips.

And as I’ve mentioned, this pet mom got the painting for herself for Mother’s Day, and knowing her, this was the perfect solution. She really didn’t want to commemorate one particular dog nor did she want a collage, and even focusing on just one schnauzer, even if it hadn’t been one of her companions, just didn’t feel right for her. The little schnauzer in the picture frame is all of the dogs she knew and the brightness of the flowers and the sunny window echoes the happy memories.

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Take a look at other portraits and read other stories

Read articles here on The Creative Cat featuring current and past commissioned portraits.

Read about how I create commissioned portraits.

Commissioned Cat Portraits Samantha, pastel, 1994 © B.E. Kazmarski

Commissioned Dog Portraits Sophie and Ellie, pastel, 2009 © B.E. Kazmarski

Portraits of My Cats After Dinner Nap, pastel, 1996 © B.E. Kazmarski

Visit my website to see portraits of my cats, commissioned cats, commissioned dogs, people and a demonstration of how I put a portrait together from photos.

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Download a Brochure

My Portraits Brochure

My brochure is an 8.5″ x 11″ two-page full-color PDF that half-folds when it’s all printed out, showing examples of portraits with an explanation of my process and basic costs.

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Purchase a Gift Certificate

Sample Commissioned Portrait Certificate

I offer gift certificates for portraits in any denomination beginning at $125.00, which is the basic cost of a portrait; the recipient is responsible for any amount the portrait costs over $125.00.

The certificate itself is 8.5″ x 11″ and features a collage of portrait images with the recipient’s and giver’s names, printed on parchment cover stock. The whole thing is packaged in a pocket folder and includes a brochure, a letter from me to the recipient and several business cards.The certificate package can be easily mailed or wrapped as a gift and shipped directly to your recipient.

I can also make it downloadable if you’re in a hurry.

Portrait certificates are a minimum of $125.00 because that is the minimum cost of a portrait.

Certificates are good for up to one year after issue.

You can purchase gift certificates on The Creative Cat, on my main website, or from my Etsy shop if you are also purchasing other animal-inspired merchandise.

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Subscribe to My E-newsletter

Subscribe to The Creative Cat e-newsletter for specials on exclusively feline-themed art and merchandise.

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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile 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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Browse some rescued cats and kittens!

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Inspired by felines you know! Visit Portraits of Animals on Etsy.

Inspired by felines you know! Visit Portraits of Animals on Etsy!

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Gifts Featuring Cats You Know

2013 desk and journal calendars on sale!

January Featured Artwork and Desktop Calendar: Darling Clementine

“Darling Clementine”, watercolor, 12″ x 9″ © B.E. Kazmarski

January light is so beautiful, the sun still at a low angle streaming into windows and doors, the days often overcast and the brilliant warm yellow sunlight a respite, and this is what has Namir transfixed in the stream of sun that washes in the back door in winter—and probably a few birds bobbing about on the deck chasing stray bird seed.

Reference photo for “Darling Clementine”.

The reference photo for this is at left, one of many I took over the course of nearly three months of occasionally sunny mornings January through March 2007 when Namir would finish breakfast then go bathe,  sit and nap in the sun. Namir’s posture and cattitude as well as items in the box and the box itself changed each day as it does in the course of my housekeeping; the angle of the sun changes as I took photos earlier and later and from different angles. I love them all and knew, as I had known with Peaches and Peonies, that I’d do a painting from this as well as having this series of photos.

But it wasn’t until the morning of Darling Clementines, as I call it in my own shorthand, with its mix of color, glass and Namir’s intent expression that my fingers got all twitchy as they do when they want to paint, and I immediately visualized a watercolor, clear and detailed, those clean edges and translucent colors carrying what I saw, better than my pastels. I pictured my palette, my fine liner brushes, applying the Prussian blue around the letters “D” and “A”, the clementine itself already painted in place, and then Namir’s profile, his rounded nose with its gray spots, his satellite-dish ears completely facing forward, the details of eyes and fur and whiskers I studied all the time. When I start watching myself paint something that’s not even begun, I know I have no choice but to paint the thing or it will be constantly in my vision like a song that won’t go away—but in this case, not an annoying one.

Detail, just Namir.

Still, I knew another image I liked even more might come up since the lovely mornings continued, and rather than confuse the issue with starting one and seeing another I wanted to paint even more, I waited. And I also added things intentionally after that, baskets, other jars, jars of beans, my gardening clogs, you name it—even other cats, including Namir’s biggest admirer, not Kelly, but Lucy.

And as a part of our daily lives then, Stanley was still with us, 25 years old, enjoying what he could of each day until January 25 when he finally decided he was ready to transition to the next existence. We all surrounded ourselves with beauty for that month and afterward and I have a truly lovely series of photos infused with memories which I will share here through the spring, but still, “Darling Clementines” won.

I did have the opportunity to paint it fairly soon after, which is really not typical in my usual schedule but probably saved my sanity once it got a start. I gave myself a very light pencil outline of the main objects, then some of the details like the lettering, applied a few light washes of color to give myself a sense of direction. I was really looking forward to the lettering on the containers, the patterns in the wood, Namir’s ears and that lovely white area with highlight and shadow. I had a good feel for how I’d paint everything but those canning jars and figured I’d work it out when I got there. After a lot of visual study of other artists, that’s generally how I learn, just get the brush to the paper.

Detail, bread crumbs and wood.

This type of a watercolor, for me, is very time-consuming, so I planned it smaller than many of my other extremely detailed works, only 12″ wide by 9″ high. After the initial sketch and washes I plan my work sessions for at least two hours, preferably four, and try to make them at the same time each day so that I am either working with daylight or my work lights and can keep my colors consistent. I also prefer to work on consecutive days until I’m done, but even every other day is okay; it’s difficult to stay consistent when too many days go by between sessions. Each session, I choose an area or an object to work on so that I keep the colors and style consistent, working on Namir’s face, for instance, then working my way back in successive sessions.

But how do you paint glass? You see through it, so…what do you paint? It’s one of the times when you apply the lesson of “painting what you see” instead of “painting what you know”. I know what glass looks like, what it feels like and other properties of it as an object, but I had to study the glass and “see” the effect of the jars on what was behind them in order to paint what was really there. That was easy once I grew accustomed to it, but the highlights on the glass really had me confused. With pastels I paint the area with a base color then work my highlights up to their relative brightness and apply the lightest highlights as one of the last things I paint. With watercolors, you usually leave your highlights open to show the color of the paper as the lightest area, and work down from that level to the relative colors around it. Many was the time I had to stop, study, visualize and then, finally, paint what I saw. I used this lesson again the next spring when I painted the vase in “Peaches and Peonies”.

Detail, canning jars and lettering.

I have often received gifts bearing cat art and kept them all, and as I moved through learning to draw and paint I studied everything that was available commercially, from calendars to coffee mugs to accent rugs for style and composition. I still have my day book featuring paintings of Lesley Anne Ivory with her lovely furballs on highly decorative and patterned backgrounds, which worked their way into portraits such as “Tibbie” with its Oriental rug and leather-bound books. When I began framing I discovered Charles Wysocki through framing limited-edition prints of “Ethel the Gourmet” and “Frederick the Literate”. And years ago I studied the art of a feline artist Wendy Christensen whose images on Christmas cards I kept through the years to study (and still have), only to find years later that she is a fellow Cat Writers’ Association member and who I’ve since had the chance to meet. What a thrill to meet one of my idols and have her compliment me!

And we are also thrilled that “Darling Clementine” is Cat of the Month in the January 2013 Catnip Chronicles!

You can read more about Namir in “Who Was That Namir, Anyway?”

Mr. Sunshine remembers Namir.

Where to find this painting

I donated this painting to the art exhibit at the first BlogPaws conference, so the original has been sold. I offer prints of this painting as a full-size highest quality giclee, and archival digital prints both full-size and 8×10, as an 8×10 wood-mounted print and a matted and framed 5×7  in my Etsy shop. Click here to see all the options listed here in a gallery on Etsy.

You can also find “Darling Clementine” as part of my “Feline Greetings” series of cat-themed art cards.

This month’s desktop calendar

I’ve also worked this image into a desktop calendar for you to enjoy during the month of January! Reading statistics and knowing that more than half of my readers view this site on a mobile device, I also offer the dimensions for desktop images for mobile devices.

1. Click on one of the links below that matches the dimensions of your monitor to open the image in a new page.
2. Right-click on that image and on a desktop computer choose “save as desktop wallpaper” or “save as background” or whichever option your operating system gives you to be able to do this. I’m not entirely sure how this is done on a mobile device, but I’ll bet it’s not too different.

Desktop and laptop computers

2560×1440 (16:9 for large monitors)
1920×1200 (16:10 and HD monitors)
1920×1080 (16:9 monitors)
1280×1024 (4:3 monitors)

Mobile Devices

240×320 (smartphones, texting phones)
480×320 (Blackberry, HTC)
640×960 (iPhones)
600×1024 (Nook Color, Blackberry Playbook)
768×1024 (iPad)
720×1280 (Android phones)
800×1280 (Samsung Galaxy, etc.)

“Darling Clementine” January Desktop Calendar.

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Take a look at other portraits and read other stories

Read articles here on The Creative Cat featuring current and past commissioned portraits.

Read about how I create commissioned portraits.

Commissioned Cat Portraits

Commissioned Dog Portraits

Visit my website to see portraits of my cats, commissioned cats, commissioned dogs, people and a demonstration of how I put a portrait together from photos.

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If you are interested in a print of this image, check my Etsy shop 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.

Subscribe to The Creative Cat e-newsletter for specials on exclusively feline-themed art and merchandise.

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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile 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.

A Trip to the Beach

Blue Waves, watercolor © B. E. Kazmarski

I first saw the ocean at the age of 30 when I visited Assateague Island, Virginia and felt as if I’d come home to an old friend; I also enjoyed meeting the wild ponies after having read all the books in the Misty of Chincoteague series by Marguerite Henry (and closely studying the illustrations by Wesley Dennis) and read about the island and wildlife refuge.

Blue Waves, framed watercolor

I conspired how to make a living so I could stay there, but instead brought my photos back and have been painting from them ever since. I have a few originals left and in this heat wave I’m thinking of a trip to the beach where the breeze blows and I can run into the water and swim whenever I want.

“Blue Waves” is the last of a series of small paintings of ocean waves, executed as I experimented with watercolor techniques and materials. I wanted to capture the constant movement and sound of the waves, and in this case I used a spattering of opaque white to render the spray as the waves broke on the beach.

Sunset on the Bay, watercolor © B. E. Kazmarski

Detail of Sunset on the Bay

Also from that visit is “Sunset on the Bay“, depicting a view from Chincoteague Island across the Chesapeake Bay toward the mainland in Virginia. That stillness, that odd pink light of a sultry evening on the bay…the beach houses along the dock looked so puny and unprotected under that huge sky above and the water below that I took several photos in the days before panoramic images were available.

Later, I brought them out and laid them side by side on my drafting table and sketched the scene onto a full sheet of watercolor paper, not knowing how much of the sky and water I’d use and leaving plenty of extra. I was just experimenting with watercolor techniques and materials and knew I wanted the clarity of the details on the beach houses to contrast with the big sky and water.

Burnished Waves, paste © B. E. Kazmarski

Coming a little closer to home is a painting I painted on one of the beaches on Presque Isle in Erie, “Burnished Waves”.

The deepening light of evening and sunset burnishes all it touches with gold and silver, and always encourages a time of memory and reflection for me. I had spent the day on Presque Isle in Erie, playing in the water, collecting shells and rocks, photographing the woods and water, and finally settled on one of the beaches facing west to do some painting. Rain clouds rolled in as the sun dropped toward the horizon, deepening shadows and brightening highlights as I did my best to capture the rapidly changing light, the building clouds and lapping waves which grew as the wind increased. I can still feel the sand under my bare feet, dampness in my hair and remember standing there in my bathing suit feeling so connected to the scene after the day of taking it all in.

I matted and framed this painting when I finished it in 1999, but for many years it sat in my “extra paintings” box; there was something I just wasn’t happy with at the time. But when the time came for my annual poetry reading and art show in 2011 and nothing new fit what I was feeling in my poetry, I found this in the extras box and realized that when I painted it, I just wasn’t quite ready for its message.

This painting became the signature image for my fifth and final poetry reading and art exhibit at The Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in January 2011 entitled “Burnished Light on Water”, featuring 12 new poems inspired by evening light and reflections, both physical and metaphoric, and an exhibit of paintings and photographs. My mother had been in personal care for years, was seriously ill through 2010 and passed just two days prior to when my reading was scheduled; I continued with it, including a brand-new poem dedicated to her, and knew why that painting had had to wait for me to appreciate it.

Prints of beach paintings

Evening on the Beach, canvas print of watercolor © B.E. Kazmarski

Evening on the Beach  is another work inspired by the beach at Assateague Island painted in 2000. I was back to a study of watercoloring and wanted to capture the changing sunlight on that late summer evening and experiment with all the new colors I’d found and techniques for painting sand and grasses.

This is a signed digital canvas print of an original watercolor painting, gallery-wrapped on wooden canvas stretchers. For this painting instead of painting the sides with black or another color, I left the original rough edges of my watercolor along with the pencil marks on the print and allow that to wrap around the sides, ready to hang or frame as you choose.

The original was only 6″ x 4″, but canvas stretchers are difficult to find smaller than 8″ so I make a slightly larger print and gallery wrap it. It is printed in archival inks on primed canvas, signed by the artist and wrapped and stapled on wooden canvas stretchers.

Serenity, canvas print of pastel painting © B.E. Kazmarski

Serenity is a signed digital canvas print of an original pastel painting, gallery-wrapped on wooden canvas stretchers. For this painting also instead of painting the sides with black or another color, I left the original rough edges of my pastel on the print and allow that to wrap around the sides, ready to hang or frame as you choose.

This sailboat drifted lazily for hours on the calm waters of Lake Arthur in Western Pennsylvania. As the August afternoon tended toward evening, the sky began to grow pink and the shadows darkened and lengthened, and the serene moment seemed to last for hours.

Painted “en plein air” as I sat on one of the beaches at the north end of the lake, watching this sailboat was one of my favorite afternoons; this painting always takes me back to that day.

This painting is 16″ wide x 6″ high printed in archival inks on primed canvas, signed by the artist and wrapped and stapled on wooden canvas stretchers.

Other waterscapes

I have many others which you can find under “Waterscapes” on my website, though they are from an era when my photographic abilities and equipment weren’t quite where they are now. I hope to track them down and offer prints some day, but for now you can find these and others in my shop on Etsy.