Gather round, I have a story to tell. While the Serval Cat, native to Africa, can be found south of the Sahara desert, it is not considered to be endangered, even though they are now extinct in many areas like Morocco,Tunisia and Algeria.
This painting is of a cat named Chace, whose early life is unknown, but he was rescued from a perilous situation in 2007. A woman was walking down the street one day in upstate New York when she saw what appeared to be a wild animal crazily crashing into the windows of a home. Animal control officers quickly rescued the cat and discovered that he had been left without food for some time, having resorted to eating furniture stuffing to survive. The house was abandoned by a drug dealer, who had apparently returned from time to time with food for the serval cat.
Chace was lucky, they nursed him back to health and eventually sent him to where he lived out the last few years of his life safely and comfortably.

Servals are wild animals and are not suitable as pets. There are people who breed and sell these cats, they are taken from their mothers at birth and declawed. They are great while they are kittens, but the older they get the more solitary and timid they become. They are huge (for house cats) weighing in up to 35 pounds. They require a very specific diet to thrive. They are rather destructive because they can jump 15 feet up and are extremely athletic and even while neutered at a really young age, both males and females tend to spray.

Servals can be found in sanctuaries and museums all over, so of the cats I have so far depicted, you have a good chance of being able to see one alive.

Chace died after living at the wildlife sanctuary for about 2 years from kidney failure. They estimated his age to be around 13 years of age, which is not too bad for a cat who was so badly mistreated.
This painting is not for sale.

reference photo taken by Dan Butterworth.

Imagine a cat smaller than the cat on your lap; but it looks just like a Jaguar. What an amazing little creature! According to wikipedia they weigh up to five and one half pounds (my tiny cat Nutmeg weighs 8 pounds and she’s not overweight!) and they have a long thick tail. They are threatened since they live in such a small area, parts of Chile and Argentina, in temperate rain forests. They are threatened by logging and habitat loss. This beautiful creature deserves to have a safe place to live. They eat all kinds of vermin, bugs, lizards, mice.

This watercolor painting is painted on Indian Village Handmade paper (which is no longer being made) and is 6″ x 8″. It is for sale for $125 and half the proceeds will go to the CAT ACTION TREASURY, an organization that was created in 1995 to conserve the world’s 36 species of wild cat including the little cats like the Kodkod, the Pallas Cat and the Sand cat.

This is an original watercolor painting and it measures 5.5″ x 7.5″ and it is for sale for $125.00. Half of the proceeds will go to small wild cat preservation.
There is an organization that focuses on the Manul; they are the Pallas Cat Study and Conservation Program

Sacha’s portrait is the third of a series of 4 kitty paintings that I am doing for Kitty Harbor. Sacha has already been adopted, but I still love her face. Kitty Harbor really impressed me, at the end of their season, all of their kitties were adopted. There are still lots of other kitties that need to be adopted. And this painting of Sacha, a 6.5″ x 8.5″ watercolor, is for sale for $100, half of the payment goes to Kitty Harbor.

To any who have been following the saga of my husband’s odyssey through the world of better living through medicine and surgery, I want you to know that he’s home and recovering nicely. Now I have enough mental and emotional energy to get back to painting pretty kitties, landscapes and portraits..

Every year for 4 years I have participated in a portrait swap via Wetcanvas.com’s portrait forum. This year I got a guy in Australia who had never painted a portrait before. I really liked his face. It looked like he lived through a lot, and even though he was smiling, he looked a little sad.

11:00am – 6:00pm
Once again I will be displaying and hopefully selling art at the Downtown Renton Art and Antique Walk. I will be in front of Rubattino’s cafe (at 808 3rd Avenue) ready to paint your portrait!

Discover what all the buzz is about in Renton! The 6th Annual Downtown Renton Art & Antique Walk livens up Downtown’s streets with paintings, multi-media, pottery, sculpture, crafts and photography displays from over 100 local artists. Meet the artists, explore the antiques, enjoy live music and dance performances and rediscover Downtown Renton. Exhibits and performances mostly along S 3rd. Plentiful free parking.