CAN THE SUBJECT of a painting communicate through his image? One of the dearest stories from any of my portraits is the one of Cooper, a “first cat” who turned his people into rescuers but who left far too young though he was never far from the memories of his people and the other rescued felines in the house. When his best buddy Patches was ready to transition herself, she stepped up and touched Cooper’s face in the portrait as if to say, “I’ll be seeing you.” But first, he had some humans’ lives to change.

Cooper had literally been born in a barn but was adopted to a friend of the farm owner who cared deeply for his barn cats including the occasional drop-offs and strays. Cooper lived happily with his mom for three years as she moved from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and became engaged to a man who was dangerously allergic to cats. Though they tried treatments his reaction was life-threatening and she carefully began the process of finding a home for her precious Cooper. The same farmer put her in contact with Cooper’s eventual mom, who had recently divorced and bought a house but resisted the idea of a pet. On a trip to Philly for a conference she met Cooper, enjoyed the visit, but said no. After a week alone in her house, she called the woman back and said she needed Cooper’s company. Cooper was chauffeured back across the state to his new forever home.

. . . . . . .

I usually keep in touch with the family for whom I’ve created a portrait. We’ve often done quite a bit of work determining the exact posture and scene for a portrait, gathering images and sometimes I paint purely from visualizing what my customer is describing. Also, nearly half my portraits have been memorials, created either after the animal has passed or around the time of its passing, and working out the details of the portrait include working through a certain portion of the family’s grief. And we share a lot of stories.

Besides that, we came together to do their portrait because we love animals, and that’s a natural friendship. I often hear news of the household, the arrivals of new animal companions and the passing of others, and stories of the household in general.

In the months after I finished Cooper’s portrait, I received a call from his family to tell me the sad news that they had lost Patches to complications from polyps she had developed in one ear. She had been adopted a year or so after Cooper had joined the woman in her home, another adult rescue kitty.

Patches and Cooper had been best buddies. When Cooper’s portrait was finished and we hung it over the couch, I met Patches and the other kitties they had rescued and adopted, inspired by their love of Cooper. Soon after, Patches showed signs of illness, but it took a number of tests to find the polyps. They were inoperable, and while her family eagerly tried a number of standard medical treatments as well as naturopathic treatments, all too soon she was losing her battle.

They told me that just days before Patches died, even though she was weak and declining quickly, one evening she climbed up on the back of the couch, sat up and gently touched the glass over Cooper’s face in the portrait, looked at him for a short while, then carefully got down.

“Was she saying, ‘There you are,’ or ‘I’m coming, I’ll see you soon,’ we don’t know,” they commented. “After that, she seemed to accept what was happening to her.”

Animals communicate, pretty clearly too

Anyone who has lived with animals knows that they communicate with us as well as with each other, and that they experience the same range of emotions as we do, including love and grief.

When I create a piece of artwork, any subject, I not only work with the images I have and the medium I’ve chosen, but I also instill what I would be sensing if I was standing in that spot, and what I’m feeling about the subject, all as if I was experiencing it in that moment. When the subject is one of my animal portraits I also consider the relationship between the animal or animals and their family while I’m working, either through observation or from what they’ve related to me. In the end, I put away all the photos and put my heart into the finishing details, simply from intuition. Often I feel those final details come to me from the subject; in several cases they’ve been things there was no way I could have known.

The magic of Cooper’s portrait

In the case of Cooper’s portrait, I had received a call from someone saying he had one photo of his girlfriend’s cat who had passed the previous year and he’d like to give her a portrait of him for the anniversary of his passing and her birthday, which were close—and also a little over a month away. It was possible to paint and finish, mat and frame a portrait in that time, but as I still worked a day job with a lot of variables. I usually wouldn’t risk it, except that he had given the same photo to another artist who had not gotten the portrait done and still felt strongly that the portrait was what she needed to have.

This could be tricky—not only would I not be able to meet Cooper, nor would I be able to meet his person or see the household or have any other connection with my subject other than this one photo, and the portrait was fairly large, 22″ x 17″. But though he only had the one photo, he was generous with stories about Cooper and the household, and was very much emotionally invested in the project himself.

We did meet the deadline, and in that concentrated period I spent a good bit of time considering what he’d told me about Cooper and the household and made sure I painted it into the portrait.

Cooper is sitting on the railing on a second-story screened porch and you can see the back yard acreage, nice and simple, but for the fuchsia plant. I actually love to paint plants and flowers, and this painting would not be the same if it was only Cooper on the railing. The colors, the random shapes and placement and colors of the fuchsia flowers and just its simple beauty all add to Cooper’s gentle personality.

I know that spiritual depth was invested in the portrait itself, showing in a physical manner—I always say that I paint until my subjects look back at me—and perhaps in a spiritual manner as well, recognizable by both humans and animals. My families will tell me that is true, though I’ve often thought it was the confused musings of someone who stayed up too late and spent too much time alone with my painting. But this time, possibly communicating with another kitty, that feels magic to me.

. . . . . . .

Here is Cooper’s page in Great Rescues Day Book

. . . . . . .

And here is the quote for July:

As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind. ~ Cleveland Amory

. . . . . . .

Each family for whom I have created a portrait also has a continuing story and so much to tell, like this story of Patches and Cooper. This family has continued to rescue other cats, including Simon, and feeds a colony of community cats on their porch.

I had kept in touch with this couple for several years after the portrait was done, visiting their house on holidays and exchanging cards. In the years of taking care of my mother and brother I lost touch with many people, and these two were in that group, but losing touch doesn’t mean friends are gone forever. I began the original Great Rescues Calendar and Gift Book in the spring of 2011, just after my mother died; it was a project I’d originally envisioned in the late 90s and planned to begin when I began working at home in 2000, but that was when my brother had a traumatic brain injury and my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and family needs took precedence over my free time creative projects. But that spring when I had some of that time back, when I planned which portraits I wanted to use, Cooper was undoubtedly among them. Knowing I’d have to rephotograph the portrait as well as simply say hello to the family, I dug out my box of old, old paperwork and called the number and heard the still-familiar voice of the man who had initially called me for Cooper’s portrait. We were immediately visiting once again. I always say this is one of the best gifts of my love of painting portraits of animals—meeting the animals and sharing their lives, and finding new friends I otherwise would never have known.

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Read other stories in my Rescue Stories series on The Creative Cat, and other stories from Great Rescues Day Book here on Great Rescues Day Book.

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I’m heading for a reprint of this book, so help me with a clearance of the remaining books.

I have a dozen books left that regularly sell for $20 including shipping, handling and taxes. I’ve cut that price in half so the clearance sales can help finance the reprint. I hope to have the reprint ready for September. This clearance is only available here, on my website dedicated to this book. You can order some at the clearance price right below.

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And someday soon a new Great Rescues Day Book!

I designed and published the original calendar in 2011, including portraits of rescued cats I’d done up to that point. I have enough new portraits to be able to do at least one new volume. I don’t think I can have that ready this year, but I’m going to begin designing it, because, why not?

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Great Rescues Calendar and Great Rescues Day Book are published by Beauty of a Moment Publishing

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Tagged cats, commissioned pet portraits, pet portraits, pets