Happy World Art Day 🖼🎨🖌🐱 Nine Lives

"A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three he stays"

A painting of mine from a while back and sharing it today for World Art Day ~ Nine Lives 

Bat wasn't put there he placed himself there, honest. Something about art and cats, they just get along so well. 

Il tempo se ne va ~ Time Passes 

Behind the painting is a photograph of my nono and nona in Italy. They brought me up until I left for Canada when I turned 7. They were the best!

Color or black and white? I think I like the b&w, I suppose the reason why I do is I love the color black. 

Happy World Art Day 🖼🎨🖌🐱

Blue, Blue , My World Is Blue 💙

... in a room with no view

Maggie usually sits and watches me paint and when she tires of doing that she looks out the window of the room but these days, Emma has a cat video camera set up in front of the window. Nothin to see😿💙

PAUL MAURIAT ~ LOVE IS BLUE  

                 ~ L'amour e blu

                              

This song was #1 on February 28th, 1968 


Photo by M Three Cats A Dog and A Camera 

Painting Cats 🐈 🐈

Painting cats 🐈. I finally got around to painting this little black cat 🐈 I have a couple of cats but can’t find them, either I donated them to the thrift store or they’re buried in the basement. Lol ☺️🎃

Looking Spooky Cute

So, before or after?

Ooh, and the seat is a mandarin hubby and daughter dried out. If I didn’t mention it I think it could have passed as a tiny pumpkin.

CASTEL BOUS 🎃🎃🎃👀🧹🐈

Urban Dictionary

Bous is a term used to define any: thing, feeling, emotion place, person, situation, experience or comment that is highly positive or loved by an individual or social group. 

'Castel Bous'

This Halloween Mixed Media Painting is done in 

Acrylic and Ink on small miniature wood panel. 

Still working on a fence for the front of the Castel : )

Can you spot the skair-ee cat ?

Boo came to mind because of the peeking ghost so when I asked hubby for help with a title he sent me the above definition and in the subject wrote "Castel Bous" misspelling 'Castle' with Castel.

The name Castel to me sounded like a wine,  which turns out there is a wine from France called, Maison Castel. Of course when stringing the two words together Castel Bous you immediately think booze :  ) I found it kind of funny so I kept the title ...'Castel Bous' * Hope you like it. 

Anna 🎃🎃🎃👀🧹🐈

A Mostly, Ghostly Night 🐺🐺🐺 🎃 👀

"Listen to them,
Children of the Night. 
What music they make."

~ Bela Lugosi  Dracula 1931


PHOTOS BY M www.instagram.com/murtagh13/

Inspired by an old flick from 1931, 'Dracula', starring without a doubt the best Dracula ever, Bela Lugosi. I have always loved his line about his pet wolves so I thought why not make 3 little scary cats afraid of Dracula and his furry kids. 


 ' A Mostly, Ghostly Night ' is a  Halloween painting done in acrylic & ink on a wood slice and features a clowder of three ghostly cats, Ghost, Spooks, and Boo @ The Castle By the Sea.

When Ghost, Spooks, and Boo are invited out to the Castle for the October Halloween Ball their plans quickly change when they realize just who lives in the Castle by The Sea.

*****

~ They could hear a strange and haunting melody carried across the sea only soon realizing the music was the sound of howling wolves and they knew that only one could be their keeper, Count Dracula. 

And so, they sat on the mooring posts wondering if wolves and the vampire hunted Ghost Cats.

And when I went to paint the driftwood mooring post for 'Ghost' the cat,  I remembered a scene from my very favorite Ghost Movie, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" 1947. If you have seen the movie you know the scene I am referring to but if not, it is where 'Lucia's' daughter, 'Anna' played by Natalie Wood writes her name on the driftwood log. 

It is my name, after all, Anna. 

How could I not? Purrfect! 
I hope you like the painting and of course Bat.
Happy Halloween ~ 
🐺🐺🐺 🎃 👀 A Mostly, Ghostly Night 🐺🐺🐺 🎃 👀

Anna

NINE LIVES 😽😽😽😽😽😽😽😽😽 DONE 🧹

I believe this time it's done! I took a poll and asked people if they preferred the black and white version of 'Nine Lives' or the color. So I decided to add more color to the original; something I tend to shy away from.

I find each new painting I work on is a learning lesson and although the vision of what I perceived of the landscape to do not always materializes most often I'm happy with the end results. Of course, in the end, there is always that option to have one in black and white if I wish. 

'Nine Lives' with more color

 I  changed the vines and light on the tree. I think it's more effective in reflecting light. I also added color to the bird trees to the right of the tree and the moon has a small crescent moon inside its time tunnel. I also did more detail work on the moonflowers adding gold leaf to their center and star. Basically, I added color where it was needed. I like this one much better than the original.

'Nine Lives' ~ Original

If you are interested in my artwork or my daughter M's artwork and photography...

Three Cats, a Dog, and a Camera

I have just reopened my Fine Art America Shop and will be adding more artwork soon.

NINE LIVES 🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈

*** My latest painting *** "Nine Lives " ***

Bat and "Nine Lives", sure hope this little fella will live all 9! 🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈
I must confess, I do have a favorite pet, Bat! Why, well because his story is so special but that's for another post.

I've become the crazy cat lady in my senior years but I do love them a bunch, all three of them, Bat, Maggie, and Karson! Still, I miss our Grace but for the time being, will wait a bit longer before we get another dog, life is too busy at the moment.

Under the willow, the cat's tomb sunk a little further into the old tree. Only, in the ghostly glow of the moonflowers, could one see the tombstone dimly appear from the dark crevices of the ancient monolithic trunk. 

So, I paint and listen to my music and the words in a song, in a man paint a picture in my head. 

 *********

"So long ago, I don't remember when

That's when they say I lost my only friend

Well, they said she died easy of a broken heart disease.

As I listened through the cemetery trees."

My art is inspired by Living Life and Art.

 Movies, Books, spoken words and Music 

Art imitates Life, Life imitates Art.

The song "One Headlight", The Wallflowers ~ written by Jakob Dylan, was discovered one night when I heard it played in a movie starring Alicia Silverstone and Benicio Del Toro in "Excess Baggage "... Thanks, M for getting me to watch this movie, loved it! Of course, Bat kept me company while I painted. I think he was a painter in another life.

I think I like "Nine Lives " better in black and white. I believe my favorite color is black.

Deceased cat to her paramour: 

"Nine lives lived...

" I know that the ones who love us will miss us". 
I miss you too, my sweetie". 

    

Hubby gave me the title "Nine Lives " when I asked him what he thought of the title I had "Miss You". Then, later I read an article in The New Yorker on Keanu Reeves and his thoughts on death. I'm sure our furry friends feel much the same and so I used Reeves words for the kitty cat. 

Once in a while, a star really shines brighter. Keanu Reeves is one of our very, favorites, especially so for my aunt, Anna in Italy. 

p.s. Anna, 

I thought you might like this bit of information on Keanu Reeves : )

Ghost cats and Bastet,  guardians of Willows Cemetery.

Original in color

Enlarge the image and you'll discover there is more to see besides Bat : ) Hint: look at the trees, sky, and moon and maybe a tombstone, too : )

Hope you like "Nine Lives" and Bat, well I think most do.

" THE WINDOW INTO THE UNSEEN IS OPENED IN WAKING HOURS " 🎨🖌🖼

Painting Magic? 

Waking from my sleep, the dreams of the night filled my head with lovely, mysterious, secret places to escape to and so I thought I would try to paint some magic.
The trials and tribulations that accompany a wip painting are many, at least for me. I am just an amateur painter who loves art, doesn't and can't produce artwork in minutes or hours and even if I could, I'm too fussy and like to work on the little things that I believe make the painting special. 

This painting has been lingering around for some time now and with everything else that has happened in life in recent weeks, it has been left behind. So this morning I returned to it, didn't like the trees, cat, cottage, cypress, etc and made some changes. Still far from finished but I like the direction it's taking. The cat will return, only a little different.

Our Birth is but a Sleep and a Forgetting:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar.

~ “Intimations of Immortality”

 1804 William Wordsworth

Creatures of the night, in their nocturnal habit they dance on the threads of the gleaming moon.

Emrick, happy to have finally arrived at his journey's end sits by the river and watches the aerial ballet. In the starry, almost scary heavenly world above, Emrick catches a glimpse of another world, one he might know.

I loved painting on this 6 x 6 canvas. I was inspired by Old Quebec paintings for this landscape and gave it more of a surreal, magical fairytale Victorian Gothic style.

Hubby named the cat, Emrick, a name from Wales meaning immortal, from that a story materialized. I will eventually make some prints to sell this artwork. I like how it turned out.

EMRICK BAT 🖼🎨

EMRICK BAT 

OOO...Emrick Bat sits and watches the spooky night in Old Quebec; his long journey has finally come to an end and the scenery in front of him promises to be everything but boring.

I'm a Pisces and my sign is a pair of fish swimming in opposite directions. And being a Pisces, I always seem to go two ways at once, like my 2 wip paintings : ) I look forward to completing both in the next week. This one with Emrick (the name means immortal ) Bat, is a 6 x 6 canvas and I will be painting it in inks.

SNOWCAT

Home Sweet Home is especially nice in Stormy Weather. While hubby and daughter watched Monk, I listened to music and played on the computer forgetting all about lighting the fire even though my husband had brought more than enough wood inside to last us the entire night. I found a picture of a Snowcat, “SnowBall The Cat” someone built out of snow and it reminded me of the Snowcat I made a long time ago made with felt, applique, and embroidery. In the past when the kids were little we built a real SnowCat and although it would be great to have a Snowcat in the front yard now, I really don't want to venture out in the cold and build one all by myself, not much fun.

The painting, “Michetto Hill” that you see at the back of the SnowCat Pillow, I painted a long time ago but it is different than the one I have posted online, it's missing Michetto, so eventually, I'll need to paint him in and fix a couple of mistakes I forgot all about.

The good thing about stormy weather, it makes me spend more time on my art.

THE MISSING MARK 🖼

You always hear in the news how someone, somewhere came across a painting at a church sale unsuspecting of its true value. And then it happens, they discover the treasure they brought home is not just a mere treasure for adorning the walls of their home but one which should be in a museum for all to revel in.

Who hasn't had the thought run through their head of discovering an object of crowning value when on a hunt for treasures? I know, I'm one who has and still does but not always, most of the time I'm quite content in discovering something that belonged to someone who's passed on and finding clues in the object that tells me more of their story. The mystery creates the curiosity of which I will never cease to have, I love digging for lost treasures! Dead people's stuff is so interesting to me, it's the kinda of stuff that brings the past into the present and me into the past; a connector to a time long past and forgotten.


Not long ago, a Maud Lewis painting was discovered at a thrift store in southern Ontario and was initially passed off for nothing more than a painting done by a child just because it was painted in the naive style. Don't judge the book by its cover yet how many of us have done exactly that? A mistake easily made when you come across a beautiful book with the most exquisitely detailed gilded artwork you ever laid eyes on. Naturally, we get lost in its beauty and some forget to look inside.
It is the countenance of the book that one must examine thoroughly and not just it's cover, alone; together they are the pieces to the puzzle that make the picture.


So when I discovered this landscape painting many years ago at the Ottawa neighborhood store the serene landscape made me think of The Group of Seven. I think it was the sunset, something Franklin Carmicheal might have painted. I liked its beautiful tranquil setting, I liked it because of its gorgeous sunset, because of the fact that it was an original, because it was painted in oil and because it was painted on a canvas that placed its origin back to England. The artist's identity though was and is a mystery to this day. Maybe the artist was not the boastful kind or perhaps didn't find it important enough to sign it since it was just a study to emulate a famous master or simply, had just forgotten.

The painting with the missing mark, the mark of ownership of who painted the landscape, will never tell its tale of where it's life began. Did the artist give it a name? Was it painted in Plein air or from a photograph taken on a holiday or from the artist's dream? Where was this secret place?
The artist's name missing, adds more of the mystery already attached to the painting. An old, antique painting belonging to an artist whose story I would love to learn more about only the story stops at the mouth of a river with the setting sun shimmering down into its still waters. The forests and hills are a few of the clues where the secret place may be and likely, will never be revealed. This lost and found treasure keeps being forever intriguing. 

The painting now adorns our home, desperately needing a frame, a very old one to complement its scenery would be fitting. I can pretend it was painted by someone famous, wouldn't it be lovely if it really belonged to Franklin Carmicheal?


In the end, I love the painting, famous or not, it does what a great painting should do, it captivates and draws you into its magical landscape and gives you a daydream.