Kitten Sandwich

The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm.
–Swedish proverb



Kitten Sandwich
4″ x 6″ Watercolor

I couldn’t resist this reference photo from Dewi’s WDE at WetCanvas.    When my husband first saw this, he thought it was two kittens in a clam shell.   
 
Here are some more Swedish proverbs, if you are interested.

Sleeping Kitty

“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Sleeping Kitty
5″ x 7″ Watercolor on Ampersand Clayboard

I painted this little slumbering cat on clayboard, then scratched the hair into it.  I really enjoyed this!  The watercolor floats wonderfully on the surface for a bit, giving you a chance to blend and play. 

The cat in the reference was actually sleeping on a pad of newsprint in an artist’s studio.  That gives a new meaning to studio assistant.

About Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson helped spark the transcendentalist movement with the essay Nature, which described his belief in the spiritual essence of humanity and the natural world. He was born in Boston in 1803. He was a Unitarian minister until he resigned in 1832 to become a philosopher and writer. He suffered the untimely deaths of many of his loved ones: three brothers, his first wife at age 20, and his eldest son at age five. Emerson died in 1882.

Who Scared the Cat? & Monday's Chalk Artist

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being.  Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.
–Albert Schweitzer


 

Who Scared the Cat?
6″ x 9″ Watercolor


I don’t know how I do this sometimes.  It was an ordinary little kitten.  I turned it into a freaked out kitten.  he he  It’s a good thing people don’t try to analyze me, based on the stuff I paint.  Hmmmm….. maybe they do? 


Albert Schweitzer


“Reverence for Life” says that the only thing we are really sure of is that we live and want to go on living. This is something that we share with everything else that lives, from elephants to blades of grass – and, of course, every human being. So we are brothers and sisters to all living things, and owe to all of them the same care and respect, that we wish for ourselves.

Schweitzer himself said that his hospital was “an improvisation”, and that the most important part of his legacy was his philosophy. Much of his thought has already spread throughout the world, in the form of ecological movements and the ethical considerations arising out of economic activity and scientific discovery. But the tough and realistic way in which he thought about life, and also lived his thought, is something that the world still sorely needs.

I was unable to post on Monday, due to the problems at blogger, so here is yesterday's post.

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
– T.S. Eliot

 

Chalk Artist
6″ x 9″ Watercolor

I have to say, that I am not a fan of masking fluid.  I had a plan, here, but some 2 year old masking fluid caused me a little grief.  When I tried to remove it, it turned to slime.  By the time I got it off, I had some soiling of the areas that I wanted to be white, so needless to say, there is no white.  I managed to add a little light blue and at least hide where it had some imperfections.

Here, it shows that I was trying to leave a white line, as  Leslie White demonstrated on her blog.  She has achieved such incredible results, leaving a white line meandering through her painting.  I am definitely going to try this again, but without the masking fluid. 

About T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot, the Nobel Prize–winning poet, is perhaps best known today for a light book of rhymes that became the Broadway hit Cats. He penned such weightier poems as “The Waste Land,” “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” and “Four Quartets.” His work is rich with deeply felt religious meditations, but he never wanted to be perceived as a religious poet. He was born in 1888 in St. Louis and made his adult home in England, where he worked as an editor at the publisher Faber & Faber. He died in 1965.

Kitten Eyes

Have absolutely no sense of guilt about being happy and successful if you operate honestly and with a sense of social responsibility.

Norman Vincent Peale

Kitten Eyes

2.5″ x 3.5″ Watercolor

Imagine that! A kitten!

I hope you are not getting sick of my seemingly endless fascination with painting cats. This is a little kitten named Water. She is one of four foster kitties that Just Chaos took care of for a time. Of course, I had to have a little extra fun with her eyes.

I quote from Norman Vincent Peale often, so I looked to Wikipedia this morning, to find something new to tell you about him. He was such an interesting guy!

Concealed hypnosis

A second major accusation of Peale is that he attempts to conceal that his “techniques” are actually a scientifically well known form of hypnosis, and that Peale attempts to persuade his readers to follow his beliefs through a combination of self-hypnosis and false evidence. While his techniques are not debated by psychologists, Dr. Peale’s said his theological practice and strategy was directed more at self analysis, forgiveness, character development, and growth ^[17] much like the Jesuits of the Catholic Church.^[18]

Peale asserts that practicing his “techniques” will give the reader absolute self confidence and deliverance from suffering. The critics, in turn, assert that the repetitive “techniques” are actually a well known form of hypnosis (autosuggestion), hidden under a thin guise with the use of terms which may sound more benign from the reader’s point of view (“techniques”, “formulas,” “methods,” “prayers,” and “prescriptions.”). One author called Peale’s book “The Bible of American autohypnotism.” (Meyer, Donald. The Positive Thinkers. Pantheon Books, 1965, p. 264)