Sheepish and just hanging around.

Sheepish ç 426-2013

I love painting dramatic imaginary foliage and poppies so here they are combined with a family of creatures.

This painting is getting framed in a beautiful maple floater frame. This is the style of framing I did for 8 paintings I mailed to Europe today.  (Ask me about the complexities of that task!).

This is on top of being woken up at 3:31AM by my cat Arthur who jumped on my head 5 times, swatted his tale on my face and cried repeatedly. I thought maybe he saw an animal as the light was pouring in from the full moon, or we hadn’t left the basement door open but when I got up to investigate,  just sat at the head of the bed crying. My phone is right nearby and I had the sound turned down to one notch. At 3:39 my 86 year old mom called me from the hospital. She had been taken there by ambulance after falling.

Sometimes I know things are just coincidences but I have been reading the book Making Rounds With Oscar that my dear friend and amazing artist, Kelley MacDonald lent me. This is the story of Oscar the cat at Rhode Island’s Steer House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center who goes and curls up next to patients destined to die within hours in spite of what doctors state or predict.

I am not saying Arthur is an Oscar, and my mom is already home, with a small fracture in her neck and a few bruises but thankfully nothing more. He is a smart and intuitive cat who came into my life when I most needed to have a kitten to help me refocus my energies on joy and playfulness. And he woke me up in time to see my phone light up and be there to talk to my mom when she really needed someone to help her talk to the ER staff.

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Arthur is in orange, Bitsy the calico.

And if you know of anyone who might like to sign up for my blog, I am giving away an IPhone 5 cover with one of my wild leopard paintings on it to one of the next 5 people who sign up for my blog. So, please pass this along if you think someone might be interested.

This painting is 9″ by 12″ on aqua board, varnished, framed and going to go to a new home.

10 Comments

Filed under Art, New Work

10 Responses to Sheepish and just hanging around.

  1. So like you, Susan! Hope your Mom heals quickly. Thank those kitties for jumping on you in time to help. You might like reading a poem, “The Cat and the Moon,” by William Butler Yeats. TS Eliot also wrote a lot about cats. But you must already know all that – silly me! Love this painting!

  2. Susan! You mailed your work to Europe! How did it go!? Curious (I will have to do the same soon). Let me know how it goes.
    Love your kittens. I paint them all the time but I never had one!
    Hope your mom gets better soon!

    Love

  3. Margaret

    Hope your mom is feeling better soon.
    Cedric, at 21 pounds often jumps on Mike at odd hours, usually cuz he’s hungry or bored though. Maybe we should pay more attention! enjoy the beautiful day! Margaret

  4. Hi susan,
    This latest piece is just vibrant! I love the way your apparently naive style has many sophisticated and painterly touches just below the “surface” of the initial impression. There are all of these complex color statements and patterns in the flowers and leaves that will make this something to rediscover and enjoy for many years. Really like it.

  5. I love the orange poppies against the blue sky. I really like orange with blue lately. Hope your mom is better soon. I don’t know about your cat, but I think of lot things that we imagine are coincidences really aren’t. Some one is watching over you and your mom.

  6. Wonderful painting…..like that curious pink/yellow “thing” and the pretty blue creatures w pink ears……

    Bitsy is beautiful…..I have an orange/black/white tortoiseshell named Francis.

    • Claire….I really liked how this one came out. It was printed as the cover photo for a 3 person exhibit I am in and I really like it. I made this design simpler.

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