The painting, she is finished.

And now for something completely different: a pet portrait in which the subject is actually awake!


Annie in the Afternoon © 2008 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 • acrylic on Gessobord
gloss varnish for protection and easy cleaning • sold unframed
sold • private collection, Titusville, New Jersey

I came to the realization the other day that up until now I’ve painted pictures of all our pets except Annie, who is probably the oldest of our animal clan. I say probably because we can’t really be sure how old Henry is. Maybe 10 or 11. Or 12. Which is about how old Annie is.

Anyway, in real life Annie has only one eye, but I’m painting her with two. And hey, look – they’re open for a change! We always said that the reason she lost one eye is that Annie’s so beautiful that if she had two eyes she would just be so drop-dead gorgeous that nobody would even be able to look directly at her. We were joking of course, but she really is beautiful.

I have fewer pictures of Annie than all our other pets because she’s very shy, plus all the others are camera hogs. I caught a few nice shots of her a few days ago (using the telephoto lens of course) while she was basking in the late afternoon sun out on the back patio. I had fun painting her in these delicious, “fauve-a-listic” colors. I’m fascinated by the way the brain sees colors and shapes and puts all the info together to mean something to the viewer – in this case (hopefully!) “cat in light and shadows.”

Here are some close-ups:

Waiting for Gretchen

So a long-time friend calls me the other day and says there’s a beautiful little stray kitten/cat that just showed up at her apartment building a couple of weeks ago. She has been hanging around trying to get in my friend’s apartment, and my friend has been feeding this little cat, but trying not to get too attached, because both she and her brother, who shares the apartment with her, have a cat each already, and they really can’t take in another one. They’ve been asking around and putting up flyers with a picture, trying to find out if this little one belongs to anyone around their neighborhood, but no response.

So, bottom line is: my friend offered to pay for spaying and shots if we would adopt the cat. We have plenty of room, and our 3 spend a lot of their time outside anyway, so we said ok. This new little one is solid gray, and we’ve decided to call her Gretchen. She’ll be “going on a visit” to the vet tomorrow, and will stay there to recuperate until Saturday, when she’ll come out here to join our family.

I’ve been trying to prepare everyone (i.e., the canine and feline members of the family). Yeah, I told them this afternoon that they will be having a new little sister move in on Saturday.

Here are their comments:

Trixie: A new playmate!! um, how long till Saturday?

Annie: Oh, great.

Ray: A new chick? Awesome.

Bailey: I'm sorry, did you say something?

Henry: When are we gonna eat? Is it dinner time? I think it's dinner time. Hey, is that a milk bone under there?