Cat: Tangerine Dream

Well this is one of those fun surprises at the easel! I started out with a small oil sketch of a kitten called Tomas and ended up with the 18 x 24 inch painting shown above. The painting is not what I'd called "finished" yet but well on its way. I envision the finished work as depicting Tomas and the tangerines/oranges on a warm sunny day on the lawn, so there is a bit more to do to create the contrasts and brightness of color to convey sunshine. As usual, it's hard to get a totally accurate photo of a painting's actual colors and values without setting up special lighting. This photo is not as bright in color and value as the actual painting.

But before the painting above came about, there were two small oil studies painted. The first one (9 x 11 inch) is shown below. I have a collection of various still life props at the studio and decided that the white porcelain Chinese teapot with the blue carp painted on it went well with little Tomas' Siamese-like colors/markings. Here's the first oil sketch:

And here's a close up detail from this first sketch:

At some point I set the first study aside and started a second one, this time adding an orange or tangerine. It was this study that really made the leap to the larger work :

Neither one of the sketches are actually "finished" but when I put the oranges in the second one, a title popped into my brain: Tangerine Dream. And so I picked up the 18 x 24 inch canvas and painted the composition that was posted at the top of this blog entry.