Oil Painting – “Tai in the Midst of Bathing”

This was my Valentine’s present to Mike.

In this scene, our cat Tai, is all paws flung about and not quite sure he appreciates my interruption of his bathing activities. A few years back, Mike commissioned a portrait of our two Siamese cats for his mother, who is quite fond of them. The artist, Christopher L Cook, decided to portray the cats romping on the front lawn, and added some dandelions for a bit of whimsy. Of course, literal as I am, I wasn’t sure I appreciated having my lawn depicted as being plagued by dandelions, but I soon got over it and became enchanted with the idea. When I snapped the reference photo that I used for this painting of Tai, he was sprawled on concrete, which wouldn’t do for a whimsical portrait, so I had to make up the background.