Fine Art Cat Calendar

We recently became aware of a British (London based) animal artist (and cat lady) named Denise Laurent who creates these amazing contemporary animal paintings in oils, acrylics and watercolors. OK, she had us at cat lady!  >^..^<

Her contemporary feline art is truly enchanting and magical, and we just love how she captures each cat’s unique personality and essence so purrfectly! The painting below is one she did of Charlie and Ming (2 of her former cats).

We had the opportunity to speak with Denise and asked her how she began her painting journey. Here’s what she told us…

I’ve always drawn and painted animals but started selling paintings about 15 years ago when somebody asked me if they could buy one of my finished pieces. It snowballed from there and I became a full time artist, painting animals, especially cats and working on commissions, painting for exhibitions and making prints, cards and now the brooches too (another accident).

Cats have such quirky personalities and they never fail to surprise me or make me laugh. I’ve always been owned by cats, especially Siamese, and of course they have always been my models and my inspiration. I love painting the crazy things they do. One of my favourite quotes is “For the artist a cat is a still life in motion” by Gloria Stook and that really sums it up very well.

I just love painting them, especially those private moments that you only see when you live with a cat. For example my Bengal cat Ming who would steal my paint brushes (complete with paint!) Or Charlie who loved to curl up in the sink.

One moment a cat is an inscrutable feline model of elegance and the next a racing whirlwind chasing an imaginary mouse and having a wonderful time. Charlie and Ming have left us now but they appear in the 2018 calendar in February. I love the painting of the two of them washing each other.

I paint in oils, acrylics and watercolour and my paintings are always colourful. I love colour and I’m always trying new ideas in paint and other materials to get luscious, fabulous colour into my work. Colour brings us joy and makes the world an nicer place.

Denise and was kind enough to donate 3 of her 2018 Painted Cat Calendars for us to ho a contest for three lucky Purrington Post readers to win. Her new calendar is made up of a selection of her cat paintings, 10 domestic cats, a mix of siamese, burmese, bengal, and maine coon cats, tuxedo, ginger, tortoiseshell, tabby and black cats, long-haired and short-haired cats, and two big cats, a snow leopard mother and cub and a bathing tiger.

The paintings in her 2018 Painted Cat calendar are: Mother and Cub, King Of Hearts, Mutual Grooming, Sleeping Siamese, Mesi, Tree Hugger, Mr Stripes, Siamese Blue, Bathing Tiger, Harry, Haruni and We Three Kings.

What a beautiful addition to any cat lover’s wall this would make!

Contest is Now CLOSED*

This contest ended on October 19th, 2017 and was available to residents of the United States, Canada and the UK. To enter you simply needed to submit a comment in our “Leave a Reply” section at the bottom of this page saying:

My cats name is [insert your cat’s name]. He/she thinks that Denise should consider him/her to be featured in her 2019 calendar because … [your cat’s reason]

The 3 winners were selected by Denise from all the correct entries and contacted by email.

Artist Background

We had to ask Denise a few more questions to get a better understanding of her inner cat lady. Turns out she’s owned by three cats at the moment. Muffin is their elderly Somali. She’s 20 years old and loves watching nature programs on TV.

Harry is 10 and is a rescue cat. Denise found him one winter in the snow and after canvasing their neighbours and the rescue organisations it was clear nobody knew who he was. Denise continues,  “so he came to live with us. He is a massive black cat with a tiny squeaky voice. In his younger days he inspired the painting “Black and Proud” because black cats are often left in rescue centres as people adopt more colourful cats. But they don’t know what they’re missing. Everyone should have a domestic panther in their lives. Harry is in the calendar in October. That’s the month Cat’s Protection have their Black Cat Day here in the UK.”

Her third cat is a foster cat, Salt {photo below: Harry on left, Salt on right}.

Denise says, “We volunteered to look after Salt when his previous people couldn’t do it. That was two years ago and I guess he’s staying forever now. He’s a very high speed cat and he loves to chase his Cat Dancer toy. He insists on a game every day. It keeps both of us fit!

Credit: All images courtesy of Denise Laurent

For more information on Denise please check out: www.deniselaurent.co.uk

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