A Fresh Start

Morning Becomes Annie ©2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 • acrylic on Gessobord

SOLD • private collection, Poway, California

(scroll down to the bottom of this post to see brushwork details)

Here’s Annie, in her favorite spot to relax after an early morning breakfast. The way she was backlit by the summer morning sun streaming through the window, she seemed to be absolutely glowing. Our Annie has only had one eye since kittenhood when we found her as a stray, but I give her two eyes when I paint her. She’s usually pretty elusive, having a tendency to flee the immediate vicinity whenever I approach carrying a strangely shaped object (like my camera), but she must have been feeling especially mellow this morning because she let me snap a few photos (from the doorway, with the zoom lens of course) before I tiptoed on my way and left her to her morning meditations. As you can see in this previous painting of Annie, she crosses her front legs the same way whenever she’s kicking back and chilling out. So cute.

I had a hard time with this painting at first. I finished one and was thoroughly unhappy with the way it turned out. It was way too stiff and stilted. Plus, because her little face and her eyes are so round compared to most cats I’ve seen, it was really hard not to make her look like a person made up to look like a cat. Which she totally did in the first painting.

So I called do-overs, took a few minutes to freshen my palette and to pray sincerely for inspiration, and started again. This second painting captures the light much better. And she looks like a cat, too, not a little girl wearing cat make-up (whew!)

Just for fun, here are a few more rare photos of Annie:


Um ... were you planning on serving us our dinner anytime soon?



Here she is on the stairs ...


... making sure that no danger lurks above before she heads up to her favorite spot ...



And here are some close-up details:

Further adventures of Queen Bailey ...

You Talkin’ to Me? © 2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt
5 x 7 • acrylic on Gessobord
gloss varnish for protection and easy cleaning

SOLD • private collection, San Jose, California

Sitting on my desk is a Mexican pottery vase filled with dried flowers that were part of an arrangement a good friend gave me for my birthday a couple of years ago. Messing with this little arrangement when I’m not looking is a favorite pasttime of Bailey’s. She loves the smell of the dried flowers and the rustling sound they make when she bats at them. Whenever I catch her at it, she stops and sits very proper-like and looks at me with this priceless look on her face.

Who ... me? What flowers? Why would I EVER even THINK of touching your precious flowers?

Here she is after I’ve demanded that she "step away from the flowers, sister!"


I think you might have left the stove on. Don't you think you better go check it?


Here are work in progress photos:

First, the ever popular black and white initial sketch:



Next, blocking in some color:



At this stage, I think it’s a good idea to start developing the part of the painting I’m most afraid won’t turn out right. In this case, the face, starting with the eyes. (hey, it looks kind of like she's wearing little boots, doesn't it?)




At this point I noticed that the vase looks crooked, so, as you can see in the finished painting above, I painted over a few key lines to correct it.



And here are the details!

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: