Bubba Kitty
Bubba is one of the Newman family cats. The Newmans are Anne and Gary - my in-laws and they are kitty people, kit-tens as they say.
My first cat! I was over in their incredible garden looking for painting ideas one spring (years ago) and there was Bubba, the hunter, on the prowl, through the tulip and rununculus patch. I've loved this image ever since. It so wanted to be a painting. It took me a while to get around to getting it started and then a while more to finish it! I finally did! He's an older gent now. But still here bringing home prizes for his people on the doormat. And it isn't just any kitty who has had his portrait done.
Finished February 2022 - 11"x15" - Watercolor on Paper
Bubba Kitty
Pets
Baby Bojangles
My Private Collection
Shop Online
Archival Print Sizes/Prices:
11"x15" - $205
6.5"x8.5" - $60
As I saw this image in the digital camera viewer, I thought "that's a painting!" Bo, our labrador (who at the time I've painted this is two) was about 12 weeks old. We were playing with my nieces on the big lawn out at my folks. Even as a little waggly, curious puppy, he already had this way of making intense eye contact. I see right into his little doggy soul in this image. I look at this and I am just so sure that this is BJ's spirit - he came back to us and is just so happy! There's no way to prove or disprove this and believing it makes me so happy too. This painting is intimate, so it seemed odd to make it really large. It's just a quarter sheet. I framed it with a lot of mat around it bringing the eye right into his eyes. Painting eyes (so far I've just painted dog eyes...) is quite amazing to me. I paint what I see in the reference photo. At first it's pieces and parts, but softening edges and responding to the niggling that tells me something isn't just right and there it is, they are no longer painted on, they are real. The incredible mystery of art.
June 2012 - 11"x15" - Watercolor on paper
Baby Bojangles
Pets
BJ First Tahoe Swim
I would consider selling the original - contact me if you are interested
Shop Online
Archival Print Sizes/Prices:
30"x22" - $450
20"x15" - $250
10"x7.5" - $75
BJ was our 5 1/2 year old dog who we lost to an awful accident in April this year. I had drawn this painting a couple of weeks before he died. While I was drawing it, I had the thought that it would be interesting to paint it while he was alive, as I had painted our previous dog, Bud, after he'd died. I'm grateful for the innocence we have in the present, not knowing what will come in the future. It was a good and challenging process to make this painting. I vacillated between the craft of painting shapes and colors to realizing that I was painting my sweet puppy dog who was no longer here - at least on the physical plane - and I'd stop to cry and cry. This photo was taken when he was only about a year and a half old. We were on our first trip to Tahoe with him. This is a spot on the west side of the lake we've dubbed "Rib Eye Point." It's a cove with barbeque pits nearby. We've had evening dinners there with family-friends the Newmans and the Torresan family. It's fitting that this is where BJ first touched Tahoe water, because this is the same cove where Bud took his last swim in Tahoe. We love our dogs. We miss BJ - terribly - and when the time is right another lab will join our lives.
May 2010 - 30"x22" - Watercolor on paper
BJ First Tahoe Swim
Pets
Bud the Dog
Shop Online
Archival Print Sizes/Prices:
30"x22" - $450
20"x15" - $250
10"x7.5" - $75
Bud was my husband Joe's dog. He got him as a puppy. Bud was nine years when we met - he was the first dog in my life. This photo was taken when he was about twelve. We were on our regular walk up the hill near our home in Petaluma on a blazingly bright March morning. Just a few weeks later Bud developed arthritis and diabetes, making his world much smaller - no more walks up the hill. When I see this painting, I remember that time as his last good spring. This painting daunted me, I'd never painted anything but plants before. I did the whole background and then stopped for a long time. I picked it up and began painting his back and was very dissatisfied with what was happening. I abandoned it for too long to finish before he died at 14 and a half. I picked it up again while I was on a seven-day silent creativity retreat where I gave myself permission to just ruin it. I went to the painting each day, (silently) talked to my dog's spirit and brought him back through.
April 2005 - 30"x22" - Watercolor on paper
Bud the Dog
Pets
Ginger and Snoopy
Ginger and Snoopy were the beloved pet-kids of my good friends Pamela and Gerry. Pamela has been one of the biggest supporters and fans of the artwork coming through me. Part of this was asking me to paint their dachsies for Gerry - and for both of them to rememeber Snoopy and Ginger since they've gone. They now have Ziggy and Fritz terroizing the lower elevations of their house, but Snoopy and Ginger are still there in spirit... and in their portraits.
