Double Trouble (36 x 24, oil on linen panel) - click for a larger view
Generally, when I approach a painting with this amount of complexity, I have a pretty good plan for executing it. I hope I won't take the magic away by telling you that this kitty (Rosie) was not actually sleeping on that slipper, nor was she actually playing with that string, nor was she actually asleep on that particular floor. Those are all elements I wanted to introduce to tell "my" painting's story. When working through the steps, initially I thought I would paint Rosie and then paint her full reflection on the black tiled floor.
Um, what was I thinking?! As soon as I started painting Rosie, I realized I would need to paint both Rosies at the same time so I could exactly match the color on my brush for both cats and (as accurately as possible) capture the exact opposite stroke/direction for the fur in the reflection. Well, I wasn't using my right hand for much anyway so I turned the canvas horizontally and picked up a second paintbrush.
And this was how I painted most of the painting. There were points where I thought maybe I was headed for the crazy house (or perhaps I was already there) but, like a really good puzzle, I found that concentrating on one section at a time was my only hope for sanity. In the end, I like to think I was able to maintain that :).
Cheers,
Sandy
