New Cat Painting

This painting, which I named ‘Oh, Pippy,’ (for all the times we say exactly that when he gets into trouble) will be revealed this evening in its entirety.  The crazy, wild background symbolizes all the trouble and messes he gets into.  For sale.

Here he is in his unfinished state, wild, crazy background to indicate his wild, crazy, troublemaking self. 🤭

You will find him tonight at colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

The Woodlands Artist, My Studio

Welcome to my studio! This is The Room Where it Happens.🎬.  Remember when you look at this that Einstein said that an empty desk meant an empty mind and his space was a mess! 

An Artist’s Sketchbook

This week I’m going through my sketchbooks to find examples for my art students for classes next week. I’m teaching them to paint in a non-intimidating way by painting backgrounds only, upon which we will start drawing next week. 

You can see I obviously painted this background first, likely intending it to be a floral.  I think I drew this pretty lady from a magazine while flying from somewhere to somewhere, but... I really have no idea.  Anyway, here she is.  I thought she was as pretty as a flower, so it fit.

I make a practice of preparing my sketchbookpages with backgrounds of color because I usually just travel with pens.  With the background done, my work is also half done.

An Artist’s Memories

When I was a kid my parents had some records - you know... those old vinyl records that you put on a record player? 🙂 Several of them were red, green and one was blue.  As a young, thoughtful color-lover that never dreamed she’d grow up to be an artist, I spent hours just holding them up to the light and staring at the colors.  This is one of my favorite plates.  Takes me right back to that childhood of laying on the floor staring through records.  I look back at my young self and see that I have always been a sensitive, color-loving artist, even when I was unaware of it.  Do you have anything that takes you back to your young self?

More Art Coming!!

It’s coming!  More beautiful artwork in my Shiny Pebble series coming tonight!

Lessons in Art

Take a look at this beautiful sunset.  Look at the tree with the sun behind it.  I’m going to assume  ;) you know that the tree doesn’t stop at the sun and have the top half of the tree floating in space above it.  You know the tree is whole; your mind attaches it even though you can’t see it.  In art, that’s called an implied line.  

Now, I have two paintings, Grant Wood’s and mine.  Mine is super simplistic compared to his.  You see the wire that Pippy and the bird are sitting on.  You KNOW that the wire is constant, even though I broke it up for interest.  Implied line.

  Grant Wood’s is more complex; you can see how the man’s ladder points toward George; how the man’s hand points toward George’s ax, how the narrator leads you toward the cherry tree. Even the little tassel balls on the curtain lead you down to the narrator.  Implied line.  

There.  Now you’ve had your art lesson for the day. :)

Cats!

Is it any wonder I like to paint cats?  Got some good inspiration here! ❤️ 

New Bird Painting

Birds on a wire.  I adore the paints marching across and changing colors.  I think the birds do too!

I have ALL KINDS of beliefs about what’s going on in the world right now; many are very STRONG.  But right now, just for this little bird moment, let’s be happy.

Tiny Watercolor

I’m curious which you like best - the first one with the background, or the second one without the background? 

Just a little watercolor sketch inspired by that teeny little branch I found on our recycling can.

 Sometimes I do little sketches like this as a segue into the big stuff, sometimes this is all I have time for, and often because it inspires me.  Also note the background color in the top half is Daniel Smith’s Fuchsite Genuine.  It is made up of ground fuchsite and has a smooth lay down with a bit of a sheen to it.  LOVE. 

Need Inspiration?

Need inspiration? How am I inspired? People ask me this all the time.  Hello!  This is me with one of my paintings I just created!

I don’t create paintings this size without inspiration!  Now look at the next pic; it’s a tiny artist trading card.  A whole lot of my inspiration begins on teeny, tiny pieces like this.  I really liked the leaves in this little card and have been painting leaves big and small ever since. You need to also note my blue fingernail polish and long fingernails.  I haven’t polished my nails in a LONG time, during this lovely quarantine, but we’ve been ‘stepping out’ a bit lately so I’ve been inspired.  Pretty much thinking that when it wears off I’m also going to chop my nails off.  They’re getting a bit TOO long!

This big painting, which I named ‘Enter,’ was done entirely with palette knife. I gave you a couple closeups so you could see and feel the texture.

(It IS for sale on my website)
 Sooo... if you feel uninspired, start small.  Small things don’t intimidate.  Small things beg to be created.  Do it! 🙂 Just one tiny thing! 

Cat Painting

Since I seem to have this cat theme going lately I might as well continue with it. This is my baby watching over me. When I woke up from my post-surgery stupor there he was, laying there looking down over me. I did a sketch of him directly onto a canvas in bed and painted it later.  I don’t even remember making that sketch!  It was a bad surgery and a hard recovery.  Anyway, a couple weeks later I had this painting so that’s ONE good thing!  He’s for sale.  12”x24” on canvas, wired for hanging. You can find this fur baby at

Colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

 It’s a painting that’s hard to part with, but I still have my furry feline watcher. Some of these paintings need to go so I can paint new ones!

New Studio Work

I am really loving the new designs coming out of my studio. It’s been an exploration of color and texture.

This piece is a good example. It’s heavy cotton rag paper, so the surface is uneven.  So, when I print the design, it takes in places, and doesn’t in others.  Also, I’ve got layers of color-changing and shimmery paints underneath, and they all accept or don’t accept paint in different ways.  

This adds up to some cool effects and textures!  It reminds me of flocked wallpaper.  Remember that?!  Really cool to touch and an affordable price too. 🙂. Good combination. At a mere $35.00, you can find it at www.colorcatstudios101.etsy.com.  Please help starving artists - man, business has NOT been good during this quarantine!

Art Giveaways

For those of you who entered and won my Win the Masked Cat art contest, they are now ON THEIR WAY!  If you didn’t win, I’m putting some of them on my website at Colorcatstudios101.etsy.com

Quarantine Art

I’ve been working on a project to make my art affordable for everyone! You see one photo with four art cards and three more photos - those three are all the same card at different angles! Here are the four together.

And here are three photos of ONE CARD:

I created them in layers of texture and color which reveal something new at every turn.  These collectors cards, called ACEOs (Artist Cards Editions and Originals) are tiny one of a kind treasures affordable to everyone. You can find these at:

Colorcatstudios101 at Etsy

Tiny, affordable art to brighten up your desk and fabulous for the collector!

If you look very closely you may find a bit of playing card revealed.  Because I love complicated work I enjoy seeing through one layer to another (just ask me what kind of music I listen to!). I’m giving a nod to the playing cards I used as a base.  These pieces are ALWAYS 2 1/2” x 3 1/2” exactly because people like to put them in collector’s albums, just like playing cards!

NICE!

Staying Home Making Art

At it again! Quarantine printing!  First, the idea, then the sketch...

Then making those sketches into a real, exact drawing,

Cutting, cutting, cutting...

Then, the virgin print and more cutting to clean things up...

I am really loving the results.  In my next posts I’ll show you more printing on different backgrounds.

Quarantine Printing

The beautiful thing about block printing is that each piece has its own characteristics and no two are the same.  I love the way you can see right through these.

You can find more of my work at 

Colorcatstudios101 at Etsy. COOL STUFF!!!

Print Making!

I’m curious which you like best.  Here we have four pieces created with the same two printing blocks which I carved.  There are so many possibilities!  Message me if you’re interested in any of them; they’re all works on paper between $5.00 and $20.00. #artist #quarantinelife 

I love this first one; I like printing in sections so you can see what the different layers look like.  

One thing I think is important is to have slow color gradations.  When they’re layered on like this it’s fascinating!

Ahhh.... what can I say but that I’m in love.

I like the light application of blue in places on this one; it reminds me of indigo denim. ❤️ 

More to come!

Society6 Art for Sale

Here are three of the many images I have on phone cases and many other products at Society6. The two on the outside are my paint pours and the inside phone case is a woodblock that I carved which I use to make prints. Cool, huh? :)

You can find them here:

Color Cat Studios at Society6

A Creative’s Outdoor Work

As for me, I LOVE staying home.  Today was pot painting day.  Looks like this year’s colors are yellow and blue!  As long as we’re home we might as well be productive.  What are YOU doing?  And yes, I painted these with leaves and then filled them with plants.  It was such a nice day to be outside.

Aren’t these so pretty? :). Here’s how I did it...

Starting to spread them around the yard...

And here’s the dirty truth...

Holographic Stickers

I’m pretty sure he’s dreaming about my holographic stickers.

ColorCatStudios101 at Etsy is where you can find them.  Super cool 3” holographic stickers, two for $5.00

You CAN dream about these; they’re so gorgeous!  Think of how they’d look on your notebooks, computers, well... anywhere! :)