Paintings by Angeline Marie Martinez
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Paintings
  • PetPaintings
    • Last Minute Painting Custom Wanted?
  • About Angeline
    • Art Classes Costa Rica
    • Art Shows Costa Rica
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Paintings
  • PetPaintings
    • Last Minute Painting Custom Wanted?
  • About Angeline
    • Art Classes Costa Rica
    • Art Shows Costa Rica
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

3/27/2019

March 28 is respect your cat day

Picture
Abyssinian Cat Stare, acrylics on wood panel, 6x6 inches, available for $100
March 28th is Respect Your Cat Day.

Because I respect our indoor cat Simon very much, I thought to remind you in time to respect your cat all day long.

The cat in this painting is based on Simon. He will stare at us like that when he wants something. Now he meows, too, a lot. 

We do our best to keep Simon's food dish full, his water fresh, and his restroom clean.  He knows how to let us know when he feels disrespected...and we don't like it! Hint: it's not his stare, lol!

Do you have a cat? Do you respect your cat? Will you, just for March 28th? 

Smiles, with paint on my hands, 
Angeline



3/20/2019

museum cat, lost and found

"His disappearance set all of Moscow in uproar," reported Moskva-24 local television. 

"The most important member of staff at the Bulgakov museum has gone missing," reported another channel, TV Centre.


A cat, lives in a museum! 

There are plenty of studio cats, but I never knew there were museum cats! Simon is my studio cat, as seen here. If you'd like to see more studio cats, go to Instagram and follow #studiocat

Click over to see the cat and read about losing and finding him, lol. 

Smiles, with paint on my hands,
Angeline

​PS: Today is K-9 Veterans Day. Please honor those who served! 

Simon, sitting on our back patio bar.
Picture

3/13/2019

cat jumps and rips 17th century painting and how that relates to simon cat

Picture
Photo: My studio cat, Simon, sitting on some of my cut out collage papers that I taped to a temporary clear plastic sheet. He can't harm these, rarer still that I placed anything on the floor, so it was a Kodak moment for us, lol. 

I can't imagine how I'd feel if Simon were to rip through a painting, destroying it almost immediately, like Padme did. Padme destroyed a 17th century painting! 

My first question would be "where was the painting that a cat could jump or claw it?"

Maybe it was unavoidable. Maybe the painting was leaning against the wall, which is a usual way of storing a painting. I feel for this man. Oh, I just "met" him recently, too, as I just discovered the BBC show "Fake or Fortune" in Netflix!  

Cats are cats. I try to have spaces in my studio for Simon to be safe. He has his own water dish, a few cubby-like spaces where I don't mind him....I try to make sure there isn't much he can break, etc. that is easy for him to access. He has tried to drink my paint water...but he's yet to walk all over a painting because I don't leave them around for him. 

As a painter, I've used paper, canvas, and wood for my designs. My favorite is wood, followed by paper, and distant last is canvas. If my cat, or yours, destroys a painting by me, maybe I can repair it...but it's probably best to simply replace it. Then again, my artwork isn't a few hundred years old, yet! 

Oh, writing of wood surfaces, my pet paintings are all on wood. The worst your cat or dog can do to protest his painting is scratch it. Consider getting your cat (or dog's) portrait by getting my free book about how called "How to Hire a Pet Portrait Artist that Works for You" by clicking on this paragraph. 

What would you do if your cat destroyed a piece of artwork you love? 

The original article about Padme, his photo, and his painting adventure is below, with the link, too. It's totally worth a click! 

Smiles, with paint on my hands,
Angeline

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/05/bbc-art-expert-tells-rare-5000-painting-john-michael-wright/

BBC art expert reveals rare painting worth thousands of pounds was destroyed by his cat


 Helena Horton 
5 JANUARY 2019 • 2:06PM
Follow 
A BBC arts experts has revealed how his cat wrecked a rare masterpiece painted by one of his favourite artists.
Dr Bendor Grosvenor, who appeared in five seasons of Fake or Fortune, paid more than £5,000 for a painting by 17th century portrait artist John Michael Wright, which was clawed by his pet Padme.
He was busy restoring the artwork after two small tears had formed because a cold winter followed by a hot summer had caused a stretcher displaying the painting to move.
The 41-year-old covered the front of the painting with facing paper and brushed on a warm gelatin-and-water solution to preserve it before it could be sent to London to be relined.
However, Dr Grosvenor was left dismayed when his cat launched itself at the painting before raking its claws down the middle of the portrait to leave a large gaping hole.

Dr Bendor Grosvenor featured in five seasons of BBC's Fake or Fortune CREDIT: STUART NICOL PHOTOGRAPHY
While the painting was not completely destroyed, the repair costs are estimated to almost equal the entire purchase fee and Dr Grosvenor admitted the artwork will never return to its pristine condition.

He told The Sunday Telegraph: "I bought it in 2015 for £5,250. I probably spent the same again cleaning and reframing it. 
​

"And as I stood back to admire my handiwork, up jumped our cat, landing forcefully in the centre of the painting with a crunch. Disaster.”
 
“Wright is one of my favourite artists, and I bought this example because it was in excellent condition, with all the original glazes and details wonderfully intact.

"Now, it's obviously in less good condition - but at least the cat landed on his clothing, and not his face.”

He added Padme is “not a fan of John Michael Wright, and regrets nothing.”

Dr Grosvenor has found many lost works of art in his career, including a 2017 discovery of  the "lost portrait" of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham at Pollok House, Glasgow, Scotland.

It was thought to have been lost for more than 400 years.

In 2009, he bested the Scottish National Portrait Gallery's experts, finding their portrait of Charles Edward Stuart by Maurice Quentin de La Tour was in fact a portrait of Charles' brother, Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal York.

According to Tate, John Michael Wright was rated as "one of the leading indigenous British painters of his generation" for his Baroque style portraits.

Having trained as an artist in Scotland under the tutelage of George Jamesone, he moved to England permanently in 1656 where he painted Stuart kings Charles II and James II.

3/6/2019

cafe, chocolate, and birds

Picture
My first pet loves were a toy white poodle named Champagne and a baby bird we named Twitty...which we believe grew up to be Pinta Roja.

All of those are long stories. The most pertinent to this article I found about preserving endangered birds is Pinta Roja.

When Twitty disappeared, Papa and I began to feed any birds that showed up in our yard. We felt it was a guarenteed food source for Twitty, if Twitty were to return to visit us. 

A beautiful red-winged blackbird, all alone, began appearing a few days after we began feeding all the birds in our yard. Pinta Roja would sing outside our kitchen window, asking to be fed. He would let us within a couple of feet of him, our arm outstretched in hopes of him hopping on to us. When we got too close, he'd hop down the power line. We spent many years feeding the birds in our yard...forever we remember Pinta Roja. 

2018 marked the beginning of my consciously including birds into my artwork. I made a few silhouette stencils for our local restaurant Chefs on the Run for painting up their ladies' room back in 2014. I've making it a point to use my handmade stencils and stamps during 2019 in more paintings. Watch for more birds showing up....

In the meantime, I thought the article below was super cool about helping out our feathered friends. 

Smiles, with paint on my hands,
Angeline


http://artdaily.com/news/108864/Coffee-and-chocolate-could-help-preserve-endangered-birds-in-According to estimates, less than 3000 Red Siskins remain in the wild in Venezuela.


Coffee and chocolate could help preserve endangered birds in Venezuela

WASHINGTON, DC.- In Venezuela, the red siskin (Spinus cucullatus), a vibrantly colored red-and-black finch, is inextricably linked with the country’s identity. It is present in poems, paintings, names of streets and sports teams and even graces the back of the 100,000 Bolivar bill, but it is rare in its natural habitat. To help reverse this, the Smithsonian and the Piedra de Cachimbo coffee farmers in northern Venezuela stepped in. 

With support from the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, farmers are committing to the conservation of 400 hectares of forest for traditional shade-grown organic coffee, seeking Smithsonian Bird Friendly certification of their beans. This approach is part of the Red Siskin Initiative (RSI), an international consortium in which the Smithsonian collaborates closely with Provita, a local NGO focused on the preservation of biodiversity in Venezuela, and other partners.

This will protect the siskin’s natural habitat and increase their profits. As part of the process, they have established relationships with roasters and retailers in Caracas. Their plan, which will also protect other native birds and migrants, is embedded in the Smithsonian Conservation Commons, an action network within the Smithsonian highlighting the relevance of science and innovative interdisciplinary approaches to on-the-ground conservation.

“Farm workers can help us monitor the birds, which is a big advantage. Some of these farms also border protected areas like national parks, creating a wildlife corridor,” said Brian Coyle, Conservation Commons program manager at the Smithsonian and RSI project coordinator.

In addition to coffee, the project aims to include another agroforestry crop: cacao. The Bird Friendly certification standards for cacao are currently being developed by the Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center, which created the Bird Friendly program based on decades of scientific research. Currently, the RSI is producing a red siskin-branded chocolate bar made from organically sourced cacao. The profits go back to farmers, research and RSI conservation efforts.

This initiative has also achieved a better understanding of illegal bird trafficking networks, which will allow for more focused preventive actions, based on research led by Ada Sanchez-Mercado at Provita and Kate Rodriguez-Clark at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park. One proposed solution is to supply enough captive-bred birds to fulfill the demand, an approach that proved effective with other bird species. For this, the RSI partners with private breeders in the United States and Australia who help figure out how to best breed the red siskin in captivity.

“We could lose the red siskin in 10 years if we do nothing about it,” said Miguel Arvelo, RSI coordinator for Venezuela and conservationist at Provita. “If we lose this bird, we will have lost part of what it means to be Venezuelan.”

Additional components of the RSI include genetics, animal husbandry, health and breeding research at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, SCBI and the National Zoo.

“In 20 or 30 years we envision a flock of dozens of beautiful red birds flying against the bright blue sky,” Coyle said. “It would be inspiring for the people in Venezuela and elsewhere, knowing that conservation does work and getting their support for more of it. Conservation can’t succeed if the community doesn’t get behind it.”



    Categories

    All Art In The News Art Studio Cats Costa Rica Painting Painting Studio Pets Sketching

    Drawing, painting both analog and digital, and other artsy things while living in Costa Rica.

    You can follow my blog the easiest by
    adding your email to my list by going here. I keep that list secret because I don’t like spammers, too. You’ll even get things that I don’t share in my blogs!
    Picture

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.