Cat and Kimono

Scout and the Pink Kimono 18x24 pastel, copyright 2012

Back in April I stayed at a friend's house during a weekend workshop.  Her cats two were of course intensely curious about me, and when it came time to get ready for bed they followed me into the guest room.  One of them, a well fed brown tabby named Scout, hopped up on the bed and settled down to keep an eye on me, leaving the floor to the elusive tuxedo, Detective Sabler.  The light on the bedside table was the only one on, and threw wonderful shadows across the cat and the vintage kimono hanging on the wall.  Scout let me take a few photos, mostly in black and white, before hopping off the bed to chase Deets out of the room.  Those photos inspired this painting.

The kimono was tough, I seem to have a hard time with folds of cloth.  But the most challenging and most interesting part was capturing Scout's very typical cat expression - something between curiosity and distain.