I’ve been intending to get pictures of the paintings I’m working on this week, but am not “there yet”. I’m fighting the crummy boards I’ve been painting on. (The lesson is “Use Good Materials!”) So, I thought I would post a cat painting a friend of mine did, as my last post was a painting I did of my cat Possum. It’s always fun for me to see how different people approach a similar subject.

This painting was done by my friend Debi Schmit. We have a long history. She’s one of my horse friends, my camping friend and my artist friend. We’ve raised kids together and shared many adventures! I love this painting of Debi’s and thought you would too.

You can see more of Debi’s work at www.debschmitart.com

In March when we lost Tara, and then Joe, I also had to put my 13 year old cat to sleep – during the first day of the Russell Show no less. What a month. I decided to paint a tribute to my special Possum, as a final farewell. It’s been good for me to do so. I really miss him. I don’t think the painting is finished yet. There’s something wrong about the eyes and I may want to push the contrasts. I’m waiting for the paint to dry though, so I’ll post it anyway. This painting is 12 x 16 and will not be for sale.

I should say I’ve been painting this week, but I haven’t. It is spring on the ranch and the spring projects are in full swing. We’ve developed some ponds in the west field that were just seeps – enough muddy water to sort of satisfy at least 65 pair, but in just damming up that area, we now have 3 beautiful ponds! The third one was put in last fall, and I’ve been seeding it the last few days. There are 2 pair of Canadian geese thinking about nesting there, and a lot of ducks using the ponds as stop overs. Lot’s of birds. It’s really wonderful! I wanted to put up something that shows you this area, so I reworked a photo (just a little!) of an old bison skull we found buried about 8′ down when we were excavating the first pond. There’s much evidence that the bison used to roam here years ago. A painting of this? Maybe.