It’s been another busy week but there’s still been progress on my new artist book for children called Numpurrs. On Storyberries.com I had done a counting book titled “The Crow and the Water Jug” so Storyberries wants another book from me related to numbers and math.
Here’s my progress: the finished poem lines that fit with my next 4 illustrations for Numpurrs
Eight divides the large wheels of brie
Nine adds mice caught in the lea
Ten has a bird as big as the sky
Eleven bakes a vegetable pie
To create the illustrations I chose the cats-to-be-illustrated from the various photos of cats that my friends have shared. My happy thoughts of my friends – and their cat photos – inspired which cat to pair with which number and poem line. Life near-to-hand provides so much of my inspiration. I made these paintings with ink and gouache on board. They’re small, 3.5 x 2.5 inches. Just little savory slices of a good life…
As I wrote in my last post I’m still using the Dictionary Of Color Combinations as a playful inspiration source for my color schemes.
I’m also still reading the cat-themed book “I Am A Cat” by Soseki Natsume that I spoke of in my last post.
Speaking of slices – my last post also spoke of pizza…and I did manage to get that indulgence, and a movie worked into this busy week. It was so enjoyable! Here’s what my homemade pizza looked like
I used my simple sauce recipe from my published kitchen sketchbook “Favorites So Far” and topped it with mozzarella, gruyere and Comte cheeses. Simple pizza – sauce and cheese – but I adult-ed it, so to speak, with my homemade sauce and cheese choices. Here’s my sauce recipe:
You can see the whole sketchbook here.
And yes, my cat shamelessly begged for bites of the cheeses.
Part of what I was busy doing this week was answering questions about my upcoming exhibit at the Caplan Art Designs gallery. One of the questions asked what inspired the artworks with birds in them. My answer: the poem from Emily Dickinson “Hope is a thing with feathers…” In these strange and interesting times maintaining one’s human spirit, hope and good mental health is crucial. So my entire exhibit is about that. You can see a virtual exhibit tour of sorts webpage here (hint: the very newest pieces have birds reading books) https://sueclancy.com/portfolio/readings-from-the-heart/
Anyway, thanks for reading. I’ll post during the week on my Instagram page and sum up here next Monday.
I wish you peace, a lap full of purrs and a plate full of good pizza.
I wonder why cats love cheese so much? Given that it upsets their stomachs, one would think that a passion for cheese would not be as near universal as it appears to be among cats. I grew up with a cat who used to break into the fridge to steal entire blocks of cheddar. My parents had to install a child lock on the fridge door.
I don’t know why cats are more interested when I have cheese out than they are when I have chicken out. But this has been true of every cat I’ve had. Of 10 cats I’ve known at different times of my life I can only remember cheese reularly upsetting 2 different cat stomach’s. For most the cheese was happily eaten, digested and more desired. Not to the break in to the fridge level of your parent’s cat though!! Oh my!! That they needed a child lock … goodness!! 😮
Strangely enough that cheese thief cat never had any gastric issues in response to consuming cheese.
So curious as to when cheese affects them and when it doesn’t. Each cat I’ve known has had their own preferences and what their system could/couldn’t handle. One cat I had loved cheese, ate it fine, but couldn’t tolerate chicken flavor treats etc.
My dog also loved cheese:)
What a hoot!! My dog is okay with cheese but broccoli… oh boy he’ll do *anything* for a bite of broccoli!
Seriously??? Cooked or raw? My cats and dog never liked any veggies.
Either way raw or cooked Rusty the super dachshund wants it so badly that he will put himself through all of his training paces in succession right there in the middle of the kitchen. He’ll sit, show his belly, speak, roll over and dance. If you didn’t give him a piece of broccoli he will start his paces all over again! Lol!!
Have you created a book about this, Sue?
Lol!! No I haven’t!!! What a fun notion! I will give it serious thought!! Thank you!!