Making large paintings takes me a very long time since I put so much detail into my work. Arlington took almost two years to complete with breaks in the schedule for finishing commissions and Monthly Miniature’s. The painting was exhibited Santa Fe in the 14th International Guild of Realism exhibition, hosted by Sugarman-Peterson Gallery and it has also been selected to be included in The 12th annual Collective Visions Gallery (CVG) show. This exhibit pulls together artwork made in every quarter of Washington state that exhibit the best qualities of contemporary and traditional art. The show is considered Washington’s richest juried art exhibition and is one of the biggest in the Northwest and I’m really excited to have my work included in the exhibit. 131 artists’ works were selected by Gary Faigin, co-founder and Artistic Director of the Gage Academy of Art from nearly 1,200 submissions.
The exhibit opened on Jan. 26 and it closes Feb. 23 at Collective Visions Gallery, 331 Pacific Ave., Bremerton. It’s a lovely show and great excuse to take a ferry ride over for a weekend adventure! Go to my figurative paintings gallery to see more works in the this series.
Photographing your cat from a their eye level tends to make the image feel more intimate and it shows your cat without distortion. Cat’s do like to climb so you don’t always have to get down on the ground to achieve this.
Natural light is ideal and its best if the day is slightly overcast. Cats are usually indoor creatures, but steering them towards a window will achieve the desired effect. Not only does natural overcast light help avoid harsh shadows, it gives me a more accurate representation of color for the fur and eyes. Try to pose them so that they get the light to twinkle in their eyes for a lifelike appearance.
Hi resolution images are a must but if most of the picture is just background, I’m not going to get any detail (unless the landscape will be a part of the painting!). Never compress images before sending them and fill the frame with your cat as much as possible for the most detail. Getting the correct texture of your cats fur and the subtle color changes in the eyes is impossible if the image is blurry. Filling the frame with your cat gives me all of the details that are so fun to paint and to look at. Use the zoom feature on your camera to help you get close without attracting too much attention.
My mock-up’s are constructed digitally and they help give a sense of what the painting will look like. This mock-up was submitted with the note that the color and fine details would be taken form another image (the one used to demonstrate “natural light” above).
