Pause for Art

I have a new project. Out at the local county "shelter"are some animals who've been there way too long, locked up in cages. Fortunately some volunteers come to pet an play now and then. I wondered; how can I use my art to help more animals. I came up with the idea of creating a small portrait to put near the cage to draw attention. I haven't formally gotten approval yet, but because the yearly fund raiser Paws for Art was coming up (http://www.theanimalshelter.org/) I contacted them with my idea. Enthusiatically they got me 3 feline residents who'd been there for months, I did a photo shoot for reference and then created these portraits to donate to their auction.

Guthrie. This beautiful boy was so photogenic, every picture was beautiful...I chose this one, where he has a definite " take me home" look

Meri Here she is just as I first saw her emerging from the transport box the assistant used to bring her from the cage. An interesting challange was to put in the dog photo and keep it less " real" than the cat.

Patton Black dogs and cats are notorious at the shelters for taking longer to adopt, who knows why...I chose this pose becasue of the interesting pattern of his legs. and the pink background what there, so we have a definite 50's retro look. It's a hard job to make black animals...I'm thinking up new ways to do them, if you have any ideas, just comment below. Thanks for enjoying my art.


Magically even before the portraits were displayed, all three went home the week I did the paintings! Does art have pschic power? And as we hear that good ideas pop up in several places, the week after I got this going, I read in Best Friends magazine about a group of artists who are already doing something just like this with various rescue groups around the US. All the paintings are donated to Paws for Art to help raise money for the coming year.