Showing posts with label cat series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cat series. Show all posts

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Ginger Cat


"Ginger Cat" ...pen and watercolour, in my sketchbook
Research says for every 4 male ginger cats there is only one female ginger cat... it has to do with the genes... the orange color is produced due to the presence of the pigment "pheomelanin", which produces fur colors in the range of red to cream.
 This pigment is also found in human hair with these colorations.

Desideratum Art and Jewelry studio, New Brunswick, Canada

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Cat # 6

"Black Cat"
An older "Tom",   going into one of those trance like stares that almost puts them to sleep.

*
The black cat has had much written about it over time and is connected with much superstition and symbolism. 
Bad Luck...  satanism...witches... sorcery... evil incarnate... a coat the color of mourning...   History reports black cats were mercilessly put to death just for the color of their coat and its associations.  Superstition is silly isn't it. Just things we make up, convince ourselves about and decide to believe. Silly Humans, and we think we are so smart.
I have even read black cats were unfortunately referred to, as "the rabbit of the poor" and you know what that means.
Yet they survive, proud and beautiful, their coats shimmering in the sunlight... and the moonlight.
 Sleek and still with an air of beauty and mystery.
 Long live the black cat!
 *

...approx. 4" x 6", charcoal, conte, chalk on heavy brown paper...
 I love how these mediums grab and react on brown paper.
... sinking into minute portions of it while other particles remain lying on top.

*
Other Cats in the series:

Gwen Buchanan at Desideratum Art and Jewelry Studio,  New Brunswick, Canada

Monday, November 18, 2013

Cat # 5

"And the Orange Cat Sits and Stares, Waiting... Waiting..."

"The time has come" the Walrus said, "to talk of many things,
 of shoes ~ and ships ~ and pretty birds before they're on the wing".
A Cat's spin on a Louis Carroll Quote 
 Approx. 5 " x  7",  conte chalk pastels in my sketchbook
.

Friday, August 02, 2013

Cat # 4

"Cat for Guillaume"


...excerpt below from "Everything Cats Expect You To Know" by Elizabeth Martyn,  pub. 2007

"Cats are never as keen to respond to praise as dogs, because they evolved Not as pack animals,
 but as solitary hunters, for whom food was the only reward worth having. 
Lone wildcats didn't need to develop social skills and were content to walk by themselves. 
Even so, when the opportunity for easier life presented itself, they were quick to make the most of it."

*
approx. 5" x 7" of a cat perched on a windowsill, drawn using a stump  loaded with charcoal dust from another drawing which made very soft, almost elusive marks...  characteristics I think of in a cat.

from Desideratum Art and Jewelry Studio, St. Martins, New Brunswick, Canada

Friday, January 04, 2013

Cat 3


Looking up to see what's coming down...
A New Year..
Snowy outside... crackling fire inside. 
 without pressures of deadlines... 
I like that... NO... I love that!  ... the no deadlines part... not the snowy part...
 To be perfectly honest I wish the snow would just disappear.... anyway that won't happen with any amount of wishing...  
but now there is this free time that is presenting itself...   
oh and I have been impatiently waiting for it... let me tell you...
seems that I've been waiting for it for months... 
now everything's saying, "Pick Me, Pick Me"...
 brush, pen, chalk, websites, ink, paint, time, pliers, wire, beads, books, dogs, coffee, tea, music, rearranging stuff, getting distracted......... gotta... just... pick... one.
Ok... close eyes... point... pick up a tool... I don't care what it is, I just want to get started
  sit down and content myself.
... this January free time thing is hard to get used to.
But it's Good!

Chantzee   by G. Buchanan
approx. 5" x 5",  conte pastels on brown paper, drawing of a darling long haired, fluffy tabby cat I had back when I was 18. 



Saturday, November 24, 2012

Cat 2

"Watching for the Dogs"    by Gwen Buchanan
approx.  6" x 7" charcoal, pastels on brown paper


"Cautious, like crossing a wintry stream,
Watchful, like one facing danger on every side,
Ceremonious, as one who pays a visit,
Yielding, like ice beginning to melt,
Genuine, like a piece of uncarved wood,
Open-minded, like a valley,
And mixing freely, like murky water. 

Which of you can assume such murkiness,
To become in the end still and clear;
Which of you can make yourself still,
To become in the end full of life?
Those who possess this Tao do not try to
Fill themselves to the brim,
And because they do not try to
Fill themselves to the brim,
They are like a garment that endures
All wear and need never be renewed."

 Ancient writing accredited to Lao Tzu,
 It is debated whether he was a man or men or a Philosophy...




Daybreak this morning from the studio




...Blooming Cornflower by our front step on November 24 ... hardy little plant, self-seeds too


Our dog Pirate, whom cats should be warned of... with the CornFlower in mild temperatures by the Bay of Fundy today. All the leaves have fallen now, only the evergreens give color in the forest and bluff-edge.


at Desideratum Art and Jewelry Studio, St. Martins, NB

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Slumber..... Cat 1

Slumber  by Gwen Buchanan


Know that, if you have a warm cozy spot in your house... and... you have a cat... the two shall meet.
Cats can sleep up to 16 hours a day.. anyone who has ever had a cat will testify to this...
 and studies have shown that cats dream... or at least they show the same kind of brain activity that humans produce when they dream.  
They have phases of REM sleep, which is dream time and non REM sleep which is body repair time....
 and why shouldn't they?


Mark Twain, author of the Adventures of  Huckleberry Finn,
 penned a little cat trivia..

"The cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid,
will not sit on a hot stove lid again.
Nor a cold stove lid."


"Slumber"  approx. 11" x 14" charcoal and bistre conte, from my sketchbook.
Desideratum Art and Jewelry studios, St. Martins, New Brunswick,  overlooking the Bay of Fundy