 Lenora's Cats - 18" x 48" acrylic on canvas - Claudia True, artist Look at all of these darling cats! My friend Lenora Larson commissioned a painting of her 2 cats plus 8 of their "friends." Lenora's cats are Chevelle - (2nd from left, top row) and Cher (middle, bottom row). What a delightful project this has been for this cat loving painter! Previous critter paintings.This was actually my first commissioned critter painting. I've done many critter paintings. Most were inspired by recipes for my Cooking with Friends art and food calendars. Think chickens, cows, pigs and goats - check out some on my website. As I said, I truly love cats and have painted them in a very fun, whimsical style. For some reason I've been reluctant to paint a cat in a more realistic way so I made this one of my goals for 2017. I even set a stretch goal to paint 10 in this new style by April. I must have put this vision and goal out in the universe where it was swirling around and captured by Lenora! A couple of months ago she contacted me to paint cats. As we discussed the project, she said she wanted the painting to include 10 cats!! Wow! I just recently realized how serendipitous this has been - kind of gives me goosebumps! What made this project even more special is that these cats all live with Lenora's very dear friends! This is also a painting of human friendship and love for those who adore the incredible friendship and love of our feline babies. I know cat lovers will understand . . . I sure do!  So here's a glimpse at how this painting evolved. Lenora sent me lots of cat photos and potential layouts and we talked about the style. She wanted "whimsical realism." (Okay I just made up that term.) After we selected the 10 cat photos to include, I did "value sketches" in black and white. She sent photos of the front porch of her farm home where this painting would hang, especially showing me the red bench and lavender accents. Her favorite color is lavender so she wanted some of that and a little red to tie in with the bench. Lenora even shared insights into personalities and moods of the individual cats - pensive, stern, sleepy, laughing, etc. At this point I understood what she wanted with color and layout, and I was ready to do the fun part - adding colors and personality.  Here's Lenora and her cats! I think her smile reflects her happiness with the final result! It was a real pleasure to work with my friend and try to bring her image to life. She had a very distinct vision of what she wanted - I'm thankful I could make that happen.  And here's the "end product" - those 10 whimsically realistic cats in their new forever home. The living/breathing Chevelle is saying hi to her painted pal Cher. How cute is that! I think she approves - Are you interested in commissioning a painting of your pet? If so I hope this story gives you an idea of what to expect. Contact me and we can discuss your project. Hope you enjoy this one too!
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Claudia TrueI'm an artist living in Kansas City with my hubby and cats. My passions: colorful paintings, yummy food, and sharing my love of art and cooking with others. Archives
January 2018
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