Bailey, international cat of mystery

Birdwatching by Karen Mathison Schmidt
18 x 24 • acrylic on cradled Gessobord

I finished this one in February for Acrylic Secrets. You can see my step by step process in the book; the editors gave me a six-page spread for this one!

I had a lot of fun painting Bailey in this large format. I’m pretty sure she likes the finished piece, too, because while I had it sitting in my office she kept posing in front of it.

Here’s a snippet from a conversation we had while I was working on the painting:

Me: I wonder if I should have gone with the 9 x 12 board. This one is pretty big.

Bailey: Darling, when it comes to a picture of me, bigger is always better.


Me: You know, you should be honored that I chose you for the subject of this one -- this picture is going in a book that’s supposed to be distributed in four countries.

Bailey: Excellent. It’s about time the world knew of my beauty.


Ah, Bailey. So beautiful. So modest. Gotta love her!

Bailey ad infinitum

As some of you may know, I was asked several months ago by UK artist Gill Barron, Painter of Everything, to be a contributing artist in her how-to book on acrylic painting, to be published by Quarto Publishing. VERY EXCITING! I've been hard at work putting finishing touches on two large paintings with progress photos and text for the project, and I'm finally done. One painting is an interior/still life, and one is a portrait of our Bailey.

I can't show you the finished paintings, but if you look real hard you might catch a blurry partial glimpse of one in this photo I took of Bailey in my studio.*

While I was doing the cropping and sizing to get this blog-ready, I had the thought, what if I did a painting of this photo and took another picture of Bailey sitting in front of that painting? And then what if I did another painting of that photo and took a picture of Bailey in front of that painting? And THEN ... I had to stop thinking about it because I was starting to blow my own mind a little bit.

* The day after I took this photo I found this art card by Nicole Wong and I just HAD to have it. It's just, oh, SO Bailey.

Lest you should think it’s all about the dogs ...

Notice that the following encounter takes place after Bailey has knocked over everything else on the desk.


Huh?



Who said that?



Excuse me? ... Are you TAUNTING me?



Oh, wise guys, eh? Why, I oughtta ...



Take that, wisenheimers!



What? Well ... hey, THEY started it!

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!

Misunderstood

Dreaming in Color © 2008 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6x6 • acrylic on Gessobord
SOLD • private collection, Poway, California

I love painting Bailey. Her colors and markings are really beautiful. Here she is in all her napping glory, on a pile of books and paint tube boxes next to the little square ceramic planter where I keep my colored pencils, while the early morning light comes streaming through the window.

I love this cat, although some people, my husband among them, don’t get her. They think she’s grouchy and stand-offish.

I understand her.

Her needs and wants are simple, really; Bailey thinks of herself as the Queen of the House (nay, Universe) and all she asks is to be treated as such. That’s all. Totally understandable.

Here are my work-in-progress photos.
These first 2 show blocking in shapes and colors.



And here’s where I paint a burnt sienna glaze over the whole thing, to warm things up a bit:


And then add more detailed layers of color ...



Here are some details of the finished painting:



... and now, for an unnecessarily EXTREME close-up:


Cool, huh?

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?

The peaceable office ...

An average workday – as you can see, Bailey has settled quite nicely into the new office space.

... and here’s Ray in his favorite spot in front of the fan: