TWO ADULT CATS who’d lost their people but found their way to the same rescuing household; we build our rescued families first out of need and then out of love—do we really find our way to each other, animals and people, until we’re where we should be?

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After his owner went into a nursing home Milan found himself at Animal Friends in Pittsburgh. His mom, who volunteered there, noticed the shy tabby and white cat and took him home for a cage break. He blossomed and she and her husband fell in love with his big personality; cage break was over as he became permanent.

Felix was found wandering in the neighborhood between Christmas and New Years about a year later with no collar and no microchip; neighbors agreed that he had just appeared about a week before. His people took him in and got him on the wait list for Animal Friends. Three weeks later when Animal Friends called and said there was room for him at the shelter he had already worked his way into their hearts and made best friends with Milan—no shelter for Felix! He had chosen the right home to wander by; cats always know.

About the portrait

Their rescuers volunteered for Animal Friends in Pittsburgh and won a portrait certificate I’d donated in a benefit auction. They’d won a portrait from another artist a few years before and had two other cats done, and it was actually Milan’s diabetes diagnosis that gave them the idea to have a portrait done of these two in 2005.

I remember looking at photos and planning the composition to show the best angles of their faces and all the best markings on each of them, Milan’s distinctive white areas and Felix’s many bracelets and necklaces. The two have completely different styles of stripes, but both have that classic eyeliner that I always find so lovely around a cat’s eyes.

I wanted to choose a pose for each that suited their nature. The two were friendly but didn’t cuddle so I also knew I’d have to leave some sort of space between them, yet I also wanted the portrait composition to work. I saw this pose of Milan and I really liked how it showed Milan’s interesting resting position; the pose was also different enough from the sitting position I’d had in mind for Felix that it just might work as a way to “leave space” between them and yet have a composition without holes in it. The open upper left corner kind of naturally balanced.

This portrait of Milan and Felix, with their everyday markings and casual postures, could be any two cats in any household, a couple of rescued cats enjoying their day.

The two had quiet, friendly natures and their postures certainly conveyed that, but the way I’d work the background should as well. Normally I’d choose a color and shade the subjects would stand out well in front of but in this case it would be a shade of blue and that didn’t really suit them. I used a neutral tan, the shade you find between a tabby cat’s stripes, but worked many pastel colors into the tan, especially in the highlights, and used deep greens for the shadows so they’d stay vibrant though dark.

This portrait is done in Rembrandt pastels for the most part, with finishing detail in Conté pastel pencils, on Wallis sanded pastel paper.

A little more about Milan and Felix and their people—and doggy brother

Some time after the two cats had come together in the house, their mom noticed Milan wasn’t walking quite right, especially in using his hind legs. Milan was diagnosed with diabetes so she gave him insulin shots and he was fine with it—no one would ever know. Diabetes is not difficult to treat but can be a challenge because of testing and needles. This didn’t bother their mom, so Milan certainly chose the best people to impress! He survived eight years with a great quality of life as Missy let me know in the autumn of 2012 that he’d passed.

This was one of the portraits I had to re-photograph when I discovered my image from a few years before wasn’t up to current reproduction standards. Unfortunately, the details aren’t quite what they could be but no matter, I enjoyed meeting the two and their mom again, and their doggy sister Murphy as well.

Felix said goodbye to Murphy in October 2013, but Missy let me know of a new addition to the Bauer Family—Izzy, a corgi/spaniel/unknown mix, and said that Felix and Izzy had a special bond.

They have continued to adopt “hard to adopt” cats and dogs from the shelter where they volunteer.

And I was fascinated with what Missy did with her purses and quilts; you can read more about Missy and Vic in Creating With Cats: Quilted Kitties for Fun and Charity.

Here is April with Milan and Felix’s portrait and rescue story in Great Rescues Day Book

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And here is the quote for Milan and Felix:

Of all God’s creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the lash. That one is the cat.
If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat. ~ Mark Twain

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Read about other current Commissioned Portraits and Featured Artwork on The Creative Cat

I also feature artwork which has not been commissioned, especially my paintings of my own cats. If you’d like to read more about artwork as I develop it, about my current portraits and art assignments and even historic portraits and paintings, I feature commissioned portrait or other piece of artwork on Wednesday. Choose the categories featured artwork.

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Take a look at other portraits and read other stories

Read articles on The Creative Cat featuring current and past commissioned portraits.

Read about how I create commissioned portraits.

Visit my website to see portraits of my cats, commissioned cats, commissioned dogs, people and a demonstration of how I put a portrait together from photos.

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My brochure is an 8.5″ x 11″ two-page full-color PDF that half-folds when it’s all printed out, showing examples of portraits with an explanation of my process and basic costs.

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I offer gift certificates for portraits in any denomination beginning at $50.00, which is the basic cost of a small monochromatic portrait.

The certificate itself is 8.5″ x 11″ and features a collage of portrait images with the recipient’s and giver’s names, printed on parchment cover stock. The whole thing is packaged in a pocket folder and includes a brochure, a letter from me to the recipient and several business cards.The certificate package can be easily mailed or wrapped as a gift and shipped directly to your recipient.

I can also make it downloadable if you’re in a hurry.

Certificates are good for up to one year after issue.

You can purchase gift certificates from Portraits of Animals if you are also purchasing other animal-inspired merchandise.

I prefer to look over the work and price the portrait according to how much work will go into it, as described above, but you can either set a budget or get started by purchasing a certificate for yourself or as a gift.

Visit Portraits of Animals to purchase your certificate

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