Christie, 2007, pastel, 14″ x 23″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

“YOU ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL, PRECIOUS GIRL…” to take a chance on a kitty known to have litterbox issues, well, that’s just love, something Christie likely hadn’t gotten before. She blossomed, and gave back as much as she got.

. . . . . . .

Christie was brought to a veterinarian for treatment, but her owners never returned; apparently Christie wasn’t using the litter pan and they didn’t want to take her back. The veterinarian obtained ownership and put her up for adoption, and as the news spread that a kitty needed a home the story eventually reached her adoptive people. They met the charming and quiet girl, impressed by her affectionate nature, and were willing to take a chance with the litter pan issues. Her forever family discovered that Christie needed to be told frequently, at least once each day, that she was the most beautiful and precious girl and to have her lovely long orange fur massaged or she would become visibly depressed. Apparently she is no longer wanting for praise and affection, and a neatly folded towel still warm from the dryer and carefully placed on the kitchen counter doesn’t hurt, either.

. . . . . . .

About Christie’s adoption

Apparently in Christie’s case, love was the solution, and her people apparently knew it the moment they saw her.

“We knew that was an issue when we met her,” Christie’s adopter said, “but we just liked her so much we thought we’d give her a chance.”

Scruffy and his scratching post by the door.

Living with breed Persians for many years this couple was smitten with a rescue cat, Felix, after they lost their tabby Persian, Scout. Now they find rescue cats, always adults, to fill their home, usually two at a time, and they also care for a number of outdoor cats in style. At right is Scruffy, Christie’s house mate, using the scratching post right next to the window so he can pretend he’s in the outdoors.

The idea that they would be willing to bring a cat who had known litter box issues into their rather new and elegant home, and to work with the cat until the issue was resolved by simply finding the cat’s own needs is a testament to their belief in rescue and their skill with and sensitivity to animals.

“She did have a few accidents at first,” Christie’s adopter continued. “We gave her lots of attention when she was new so she’d know we loved her and she belonged here and she’d get used to the place. After all, she’d been abandoned.” The occasional errant litterbox non-use disappeared.

Christie gets her love session.

“I just discovered that she needs to be held and petted and massaged and told every day, more than once if possible, that she is the most wonderful, beautiful, precious, lovely girl, and we love her very much,” she said as she demonstrated the process of love with Christie on her lap when I met with her for the portrait, massaging her fingers through Christie’s thick fur as Christie flexed her front toes and slowly blinked her eyes, knowing that this sort of treatment was her divine right.

Eventually, people have to go to work or away on a vacation or just out somewhere for long days, such as during the holidays. “When she doesn’t get her quota of love, she will ‘miss’ the box,” her adopter said, “so we give Christie her love every day, but we understand if she misses.” Even the pet sitter indulged Christie when they were away.

But solving Christie’s issues wasn’t the reason for lots of love, and trying to resolve her issues wasn’t a reason for adoption; rather, it was the other way around. They simply knew when they met her that they loved her and they felt Christie would love them too. Finding the solution—frequent demonstrative love sessions—was a happy by-product of how much they loved her, and she loved them.

About Christie’s portrait

Christie, detail.

I’ve done several portraits for this couple, as you can see in Felix’s article, Big Kitty Love, and Christie was the more recent. By this time I no longer needed to review with them the process of considering the scene and posture they’d like in order to remember their kitty forever on their wall. When they called me, they knew exactly what they wanted, because nearly every day, they warmed a towel in the dryer, folded it neatly and, while still warm, placed it on the counter dividing the kitchen and dining area where they frequently sat after dinner. They had taken a number of photos in preparation and I took a number of close-ups of Christie as well, and happily got to their portrait.

They lost Christie in 2013, a few years after I’d painted this portrait, but for all the years she was with them Christie was the quiet and gentle boss, only asking for as much love as she could take, and giving back as much as her humans could take.

Some people react to this portrait in an interesting way, saying she looks sad, but it’s only because she’s lying down and her expression is relaxed, her eyes aren’t as round and alert as usual—and that’s where the portrait posture is personal to the humans of the cat. Her people know she’s extremely happy and see nothing else.

~~~

They lost Christie to renal failure a couple of years ago. She was loved to the end.

Here is Christie’s page in Great Rescues:

. . . . . . .

And here is the quote for Christie:

What greater gift than the love of a cat? ~ Charles Dickens

Read about other current Commissioned Portraits and Featured Artwork

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.

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.

Download a Brochure

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.

Purchase a Gift Certificate

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 here or 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.

How to Order

• “Certificate A” is for a minimum-size 8 x 10 black and white or monochromatic portrait with one subject.
• “Certificate B” is for a minimum-size 8 x 10 color portrait with one subject.
• Choose “A” or “B” depending on whether your portrait is black and white or color.
• If your portrait will be larger or have more subjects, add $50 or $100 or more to your certificate value with the drop-down below.

CERTIFICATE A $50.00

• Size: 8 x 10
• Subjects: One
• Color: black and white media such as charcoal, pencil, ink, or monochromatic media such as one color of pastel, watercolor, colored pencil, etc.
• Background or objects: none but shading or colored paper

CERTIFICATE B $100.00

• Size: 8 x 10
• Subjects: One
• Color: full color media such as pastel, watercolor, colored pencil, etc.
• Background or objects: none but a color or colored paper

Add to your certificate purchase

You can use the second drop down to add $50.00 or $100.00. For amounts over this we’d probably have a conversation and I can set up a custom certificate for your purchase.

Visit Portraits of Animals to purchase your certificate

©2011-2025 Bernadette E. Kazmarski | All Rights Reserved.

No content may be used without WRITTEN PERMISSION from the author.

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

Site designed by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

“Trumpet and Jasper”, pastel, 24″ x 12″, 1993 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

CATS CAN COME FROM ANYWHERE and steal your heart and change your life. Trumpet and Jasper came from anonymous places but filled a woman’s heart, a woman who had never had a cat before and began rescuing because she loved them so much. And though she’d adopted these two in the mid 1970s and had lost them just before I did this portrait in 1993, when I saw her again in 2011 she still had a house full of rescued cats, wonderful, friendly, happy rescued cats, and a very happy human.

. . . . . . .

Jasper’s mom had grown up with a love of animals but had never had a pet of her own. When she moved to a pet-friendly apartment her secretary suggested she adopt a cat, advising that cats were low-maintenance. She visited the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society because in those days “that was where you went to get cats”, finding the tabby kitten with white paws.

Jasper, though a barn cat had apparently learned some manners and was “the perfect cat”, so perfect that two years later she decided to adopt another cat and give Jasper a companion. The little kitten she would name Trumpet, simply found on a roadside with his brother, was so affectionate, pure white with his little paws on the rim of the cage, and she found him irresistible. Jasper did not, but the three lived in harmony, both cats adoring their mom and being adored in return.

. . . . . . .

Yes, this portrait is from over 30 years ago! I can hardly believe it was that long ago, and I was so new to all this…And I was so happy to look up Trumpet and Jasper’s mom all these years later when I published my first Great Rescues book in 2011.

Trumpet and Jasper were but the first two cats this woman rescued. Volunteering for years at a shelter in Pittsburgh and living near a high-kill shelter in the next county, she continued to rescue cats and foster and adopt from shelters, also adopting a few rescued Pomeranians. When I visited her in 2011 there were beautiful cats everywhere, friendly and curious, leaving face rubs on my bags to take back to my cats, and stories of miraculous recoveries of ones brought in from the street; read Irina and Isis, Saved From the Flood.

Detail of Jasper’s face

This was one of the first portraits I painted when I was still using the paper color as the background of the portrait, a style I occasionally use today. But my pastels at the time didn’t always cover the paper as I had expected and I couldn’t layer the pastel as I do today, adding one color atop another and blending as needed with my fingers, then adding the final detail layer, that technique I’d developed that built dimension. Also because I couldn’t layer the pastel it would dust off the subject onto the paper outside the figures and needed to be repeatedly removed with a kneaded eraser or the paper just looked sloppy or dirty, depending on the color, and I lost the details I’d been working. Initially I began covering the background, then later discovered the more textured papers.

Knowing what I know now I am shocked I managed to get the soulful details in Jasper’s eyes and the detail and shadowing in Trumpet’s fur. This was in the days of 3.5″ x 5″ prints, so grasping the details could be tricky, though her photos were good. Jasper reminded me so much of my Stanley, still very much with me, and I used Stanley’s facial details, especially those eyes, for reference. It was especially important to get that one white mitten of a paw out in front while the other was folded in underneath because it was Jasper’s signature pose.

Detail of Trumpet’s face.

And of course I had my Sally, also still with me, to use as a guide for Trumpet’s white fur, even though she was long-haired and Trumpet short-haired. Still, the shadowing in the fur, the pink nose and ears and pea-green eyes, I was so glad they were willing models.

The two boys always slept on the braided rug shown in the portrait, but she didn’t have any images of them actually on it. I asked her to just give me a picture of it and I’d figure it out. The rug is fine, but I really don’t like the fuzzy sort of shading I did around it, just to keep them from looking as if they were floating in space, which is how it looked with just the oval rug, but that was all I could think of to do then. No one but me seems to notice that, but I smile at what I’ve learned from the experience of each and every portrait.

Trumpet and Jasper had passed before I did this portrait, but it was fairly recent, and when I showed her the finished portrait she burst into tears. That was the first time that had happened, but I understood completely; their similarities with Stanley and Sally made me think of their mortality as well the whole time I was working on it even though they each had many years left, and I was feeling pretty emotional too. I guessed the portrait was fairly accurate for that kind of a reaction. All these years and all these cats later, she still gets misty talking about Trumpet and Jasper.

“Trumpet and Jasper” is actually one of my very first portraits, from the first year I was in business painting portraits. From the portrait painting to the traveling around, the framing and realizing I’d be making a lot of friends through commissioned portraits, I had so much to learn. I treasure every lesson, every cat, and dog and bird, and human I’ve met along the way.

Here is Trumpet and Jasper’s page in Great Rescues:

Trumpet and Jasper’s page in “Great Rescues Day Book”

. . . . . . .

And here is the quote for Trumpet and Jasper:

Time spent with cats is never wasted. ~ May Sarton

Read about other current Commissioned Portraits and Featured Artwork

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.

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.

Download a Brochure

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.

Purchase a Gift Certificate

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 here or 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.

How to Order

• “Certificate A” is for a minimum-size 8 x 10 black and white or monochromatic portrait with one subject.
• “Certificate B” is for a minimum-size 8 x 10 color portrait with one subject.
• Choose “A” or “B” depending on whether your portrait is black and white or color.
• If your portrait will be larger or have more subjects, add $50 or $100 or more to your certificate value with the drop-down below.

CERTIFICATE A $50.00

• Size: 8 x 10
• Subjects: One
• Color: black and white media such as charcoal, pencil, ink, or monochromatic media such as one color of pastel, watercolor, colored pencil, etc.
• Background or objects: none but shading or colored paper

CERTIFICATE B $100.00

• Size: 8 x 10
• Subjects: One
• Color: full color media such as pastel, watercolor, colored pencil, etc.
• Background or objects: none but a color or colored paper

Add to your certificate purchase

You can use the second drop down to add $50.00 or $100.00. For amounts over this we’d probably have a conversation and I can set up a custom certificate for your purchase.

Visit Portraits of Animals to purchase your certificate

©2011-2025 Bernadette E. Kazmarski | All Rights Reserved.

No content may be used without WRITTEN PERMISSION from the author.

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

Site designed by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Cooper, 1996, pastel, 22” x 17” © B. E. Kazmarski

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.”

Detail of Cooper’s face.

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.

Detail of paws and fur.

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.

Detail of flowers.

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

Cooper’s page in Great Rescues

. . . . . . .

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

. . . . . . .

Simon Says…

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.

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.

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.

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?

©2011-2025 Bernadette E. Kazmarski | All Rights Reserved.

No content may be used without WRITTEN PERMISSION from the author.

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

Site designed by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Cooper, 1996, pastel, 22” x 17” © B. E. Kazmarski

Seeing Mimi settling down near Peaches’ portrait reminded me of another instance of a cat communicating with one of my portraits.

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.

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.

Patches and Cooper had been best buddies. Cooper had passed about a year before I painted his portrait, and when it 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.

Detail of Cooper's face.

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.”

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 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 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.

I know that 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 humans and animals as well. My families will tell me that, 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.

Cooper’s story is this:

Cooper's page in Great Rescues

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.

Cooper’s portrait and rescue story are featured in Great Rescues Calendar and Gift Book.

Simon Says...

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 I’ll have more stories to tell about their family of cats ranging from those comfortably indoors to those who visit the feeding stations outdoors and use the carefully constructed shelters in the winter.

Also, read about my commissioned portraits and visit my website to see samples of cat portraits, dog portraits and more.