"Drip Catcher"

You've heard of dreamcatchers, right ? This painting is of my cat Sing Song. Since it turned to winter, she doesn't feel like being outside catching mice, so she's inside, catching drips. This is an oil painting, done with a transparent oil technique, much like the look of watercolor. When I started this painting, I drew the cat on the board. I checked the drawing, asking myself these questions, does this look like a cat? Does it look like she's on the faucet of a tub? When those questions got the right answer, I moved on into the paint. It's a challenge to paint a black item or animal. It has to read "Black" when you're finsihed, but you use other colors to achieve that or you'd have nothing but a blob on the page. To get this right, I had to go find Sing Song and move her leg into the position she was in on the faucet, she didn't appreciate this even though I didn't hurt her! She's so black, you can't look at her and tell what you need to paint, you have to feel her.

Once I started painting, I got so involved, I dipped my paint brush into my coffee and gave it a swish. I didn't know what I'd done, until I went to take a drink of my coffee. The smell registered in my brain before I had a swig of it. I thought I'd picked up the turpentine instead of the coffee!

I hate it when I do this, I need my coffee, so I have to break concentration and go get a new cup. It isn't simple for me to do this, I have to get the cream and sugar just right, trips to the fridge, trips to the cupboard, can't use the same cup when it's got turpentine in it, you know.

At last, I'm back to the painting. I finish it up and try to scan it. When the painting is this wet, it doesn't scan well unless I build a little platform on both sides of it to hold the wet paint off the glass. Once that's done, I scan the painting, look at it through the eyes of my computer and make any other adjustments I can see that need to be done. After about three times of doing this, I say the painting is finsihed.

I owe ebay so much for listing fees this month, I guess I'll put this image in my store with a set price of $14.99 on it and see what happens. Store listings are much cheaper than the auction listings. But if you don't list some auctions, no one finds your store as those listings don't show up in searches people do on ebay. I have a definite love hate relationship with ebay.

I love the people there who buy my work, so I keep going back!
donna