I've finished the grass cat today, a painting I made for Art For Shelter Animals after the cause was highlighted on Sheila Tajima's blog.
I'm not totally happy with it, but am reasonably so. While painting, I found myself uncomfortably struggling with the artistic emptiness of the idea. At times it looks like a clever and pretty picture, which on their own are terrible words to be applied to an artwork! The eyes though looked rather sad, and the fact that the animal is a rescue cat made me think that it was lost, and visually it does looks like it's hiding in the grass. The title became Cat Lost In The Grass, and I added a crucial pathway into the landscape, a path, like any other, that shows a journey from there to here.
The painting is 20x24cm (about 8x10 inches). The bee in the photo is about the size of a grain of rice. As it dries I'll make the frame which will be uniquely decorated. Once touch dry I'll scan it and submit it to the project. The picture above is a close up of the face, not the whole painting.
Incidentally, here is the source photograph. I deliberately chose a blurry one because I thought that no other artist would. Perhaps that very choice is why I thought the cat was lost.
