Four Kitties Supervising Mom, 15" x 11", watercolor, 2011 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski.

Commissioned Portrait: Four Kitties Watching Mom

Four Kitties Supervising Mom, 15" x 11", watercolor, 2011 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski.

Four Kitties Supervising Mom, 15″ x 11″, watercolor, 2011 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski.

These four rescued kitties are supervising their mom working out in the yard! From the left they are Gizmo, Twinkie, Stewart and Elsie, four lucky kitties rescued by people who were working on TNR and found homes for the friendly kitties. The woman’s husband had purchased a gift certificate so that she could choose the portrait she wanted, and she had the idea and lots of photos when I went to visit. Among other ideas, she had a photo from a previous year in which Twinkie and Stewart really were watching her out that window. The little windowbox was full of red tuberous begonias and the casements were open, kitties were enjoying the sun.

The actual photo.

I knew this would be beautiful. Cats and flowers, and looking out a window, what could be better?

Initially, I was to add Gizmo, the third cat in the household then, so I took a few more photos of the cats and of the window with red dahlias that spring so I’d have enough to work with. One thing about cats on the inside of the window is that the screen darkens things and sometimes creates a pattern, the sun sometimes flashes on the screen, and the lights and darks need to be evened out. The window positions just weren’t nice in the initial composite, and worked better in the second. But there was too much window and not enough cats and flowers, so I cropped it down to just the important parts. The dahlias were a little skimpy since I’d taken the photo in May. But still we had some work to do before we had a composition we liked.

But then another thing happened. These people were avid golfers, and the golf course they used had a number of kitties running around. That’s where they’d been busy TNRing the kitties, and finding homes for the friendly ones. Gizmo, Twinkie and Stewart had come from there. When I had visited her she had mentioned a young cat, really an older kitten, who was very friendly and who she was considering adding to her feline household. Elsie joined the household and that balanced the composition with two cats in each of the windows. I solved the flower problem by making them grow and fill the bottom of the image to over flowing, with lots of color, and cropped it down to just enough window, and lots of kitties.

It’s one of the things I love about what I do: meeting generous people who rescue cats, and it’s a real bonus when they love flowers and growing things, and art.


Read about other current Commissioned Portraits and Featured Artwork

I also feature artwork which has not been commissioned, especially my paintings of my own cats. If you’d like to read more about artwork as I develop it, about my current portraits and art assignments and even historic portraits and paintings, I feature commissioned portrait or other piece of artwork on Wednesday. Choose the categories featured artwork.


Take a look at other portraits and read other stories

Read articles on The Creative Cat featuring current and past commissioned portraits.

Read about how I create commissioned portraits.

Commissioned Cat Portraits

portrait of black cat on wicker chair

Samantha, pastel, 1994 © B.E. Kazmarski

Commissioned Dog Portraits

portrait of two dogs

Sophie and Ellie, pastel, 2009 © B.E. Kazmarski

Portraits of
My Cats

pastel painting of cat on table

After Dinner Nap, pastel, 1996 © B.E. Kazmarski

Visit my website to see portraits of my cats, commissioned cats, commissioned dogs, people and a demonstration of how I put a portrait together from photos.


Download a Brochure

cover of brochure

My Portraits Brochure

My brochure is an 8.5″ x 11″ two-page full-color PDF that half-folds when it’s all printed out, showing examples of portraits with an explanation of my process and basic costs.


Purchase a Gift Certificate

Sample Commissioned Portrait Certificate

Sample Commissioned Portrait Certificate

I offer gift certificates for portraits in any denomination beginning at $50.00, which is the basic cost of a small monochromatic portrait.

The certificate itself is 8.5″ x 11″ and features a collage of portrait images with the recipient’s and giver’s names, printed on parchment cover stock. The whole thing is packaged in a pocket folder and includes a brochure, a letter from me to the recipient and several business cards.The certificate package can be easily mailed or wrapped as a gift and shipped directly to your recipient.

I can also make it downloadable if you’re in a hurry.

Certificates are good for up to one year after issue.

You can purchase gift certificates here or from Portraits of Animals if you are also purchasing other animal-inspired merchandise.

I prefer to look over the work and price the portrait according to how much work will go into it, as described above, but you can either set a budget or get started by purchasing a certificate for yourself or as a gift.

How to Order

  • “Certificate A” is for a minimum-size 8 x 10 black and white or monochromatic portrait with one subject.
  • “Certificate B” is for a minimum-size 8 x 10 color portrait with one subject.
  • Choose “A” or “B” depending on whether your portrait is black and white or color.
  • If your portrait will be larger or have more subjects, add $50 or $100 or more to your certificate value with the drop-down below.

CERTIFICATE A $50.00

  • Size: 8 x 10
  • Subjects: One
  • Color: black and white media such as charcoal, pencil, ink, or monochromatic media such as one color of pastel, watercolor, colored pencil, etc.
  • Background or objects: none but shading or colored paper

CERTIFICATE B $100.00

  • Size: 8 x 10
  • Subjects: One
  • Color: full color media such as pastel, watercolor, colored pencil, etc.
  • Background or objects: none but a color or colored paper

Add to your certificate purchase

You can use the second drop down to add $50.00 or $100.00. For amounts over this we’d probably have a conversation and I can set up a custom certificate for your purchase.

[ss_product id=’ee6d37ec-349a-11e6-a43c-0cc47a075d76′ ]Commissioned Portrait Certificate[/ss_product]

You only need to enter an address if it is different from the address I’ll receive when you order. These are often surprise gifts and need to be shipped away from the home address to make sure they are a surprise.

Other items with the same art or design To find all items on this site with the same art or design, use the search box for the name of the artwork and you'll find all that's available.

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For art, photos and writing as I develop it, visit my blogs.

See feline art and photos as they happen on The Creative Cat, along with feline news, health, welfare, rescue stories and more.

See daily photos as I post them on Today.

Read poetry, short stories, essays and more on Paths I Have Walked.

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© 2022 | www.PortraitsOfAnimals.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.

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