CAT NAP

CAT NAP, Acrylic painting on linen, 18X24, $585

You sometimes are quite surprised by what incidents or things that begin percolating through your brain that causes you to rush to the studio and paint, paint, paint.

I don't consider myself a cat person. I've owned only one cat my whole life. That was when I was twenty. It was a small tabby. For about a week after I had received the cat, I suffered with what I thought was a cold. Suddenly, someone from work suggested I may be suffering from an allergy to the cat and offered to cat sit my tabby for a few days. The cold went away. When the tabby returned, so did my cold. That was the one and only Cat with whom I ever shared living space.

The painting, Cat Nap, was inspired by a recent regular visitor to our yard. A while ago  a Cat visitor began greeting us each time we walked out the door of the deck. Mr. Cat was quite the conversationist. The cute male gray cat with white face who happens to be very talkative comes and walks between my legs as I travel to and from the studio. At first I was a bit concerned knowing how cats generally like stalking birds. We have a few bird and suet feeders and my husband and I both enjoy the songbirds that live around us. We will sit out on the screened in deck in the mornings and have breakfast and watch the variety of birds that visit the feeders. Birds like chickadees, catbirds, titmouse, nuthatches, flickers, downy woodpeckers, cardinals, goldfinches and so on. One day while I was sitting on a chair near the feeders, Mr. Cat Nap came up and began talking and talking. Much to my joy neither the birds nor the cat seemed very interested in each other. Thus the Cat Nap painting. My little yellow tabby showed up to stand in for the gray Mr. Cat Nap in the painting.

CATNAP is currently on exhibit at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts.