Blog

Well I realized I should either stop pretending to have a blog, or post something in it. I have several topics of interest to muse on, but life has intervened. Now that I have resumed a more settled existence, I am back finding more time for art. With me are my cats, as always. But in the process of leaving the old house, I left behind some footprints on a window ledge that a now-deceased kitty had left behind, so I photographed his paw prints in the hope of incorporating them into a future painting.

   Barney's Art

Years ago, Heather Busch and Burton Silver published a whimsical book entitled "Why Cats Paint" showing cats painting abstracts, which Amazon describes as "An unprecedented photographic record of cat creativity that will intrigue cat lovers and art lovers alike." Well, it was fun, albeit unscientific, and spurred many people at the time to try convincing their cats to paint.

On a more serious note, a recent book entitled Artful Cats by Mary Savig caught my eye. It's an investigation, using works from the Smithsonian, of various famous artists' relationships with their cats, providing a glimpse of the personal lives of many of these artists in the process. Again, from Amazon:

"Artful Cats explores the quirky and charming relationships of artists with their cats in 130 rarely seen photos, paintings, sketches, manuscripts, and letters from the Archives of American Art. Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, Louise Nevelson, Marcel Breuer, Yves Tanguy, Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Weston, Robert Indiana, Judy Chicago, Berenice Abbott, and Romare Bearden show off their artful cats, which appear as companions, inspirations, instigators, and often regents of the home or studio."

I don't often paint animals, but when I do, it's usually my cats. Perhaps it's something to do more often.

"Griffin"

Elaine L Hughes

12" x 9" watercolour on paper