Nikka's Jupiter Ball, Pastel - Portraits of Animals

“Nikka’s Jupiter Ball” is a pastel on Pastelmat card, 10″ x 15″, 2023 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski.

About the artwork

Nikka’s Jupiter Ball, pastel, 10 x 15, 2023 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

It’s exciting to see an idea, an image you’ve visualized for decades, suddenly be there right before your eyes. All of Nikka’s markings and her big round yellow-green eyes, all the rich colors, the light, the familiar things, just what I’ve been seeing all these years. And mostly, the moment and the memory she and I shared of one of her favorite activities. She made direct eye contact with me—”do you see this?!”—yes, I could see her excitement, and then she put on an athletic feat of chasing it all around the room.

Detail of Nikka’s face

Creating the painting “Nikka’s Jupiter Ball” from many photos

It’s titled “Nikka’s Jupiter Ball” because what inspired it is Nikka’s excited expression and her ball right there, a moment I saw when I walked into my bedroom one late afternoon and saw here in the sun under the rocker, then saw the ball and understood. It was her favorite toy and she always got the big round eyes when she saw it, then she’d bat it all over the room. I remembered that moment out of many, but did not get a photo of her in action.

I have many photos of Nikka on film and a few from my first digital camera, but I lost her in 2003. I knew then that I would want to paint this scene, and I used both digital and film to capture this corner of my bedroom in the right light. Because it’s season-specific, and I had a big maple tree outside the window, I had a few weeks in winter when the light was just right—and my bedroom wasn’t suddenly filled with extra furniture from my mother’s house, which I sold in 2004. I mocked up the scene and tweaked it over the next two decades, even still tweaking a bit right before I started working on this painting. I’m very pleased with the outcome.

You can read much more about this painting and about Nikka on The Creative Cat.

Here are a few of my favorite areas of detail:

Purchasing prints

SHIPPING

Shipping within the US is included in all the prices listed. All shipping is via Priority Mail. Prints are shipped flat in a rigid envelope. Canvases are shipped in a box to fit with padding. Since this original is small it is also shipped in a box with extra padding.

GICLEE PRINTS

The giclees are printed on acid-free hot press art paper for a smooth matte finish using archival inks. Giclee is the highest quality print available because the technique uses a dozen or more ink ports to capture all the nuances of the original painting, including details of the texture, far more sensitive than any other printing medium. Sometimes my giclees look so much like my originals that even I have a difficult time telling them apart when they are in frames. The giclees have 2″ of white around the outside edges.

I don’t keep giclee prints in stock for most of my works. Usually I have giclees printed as they are ordered unless I have an exhibit where I’ll be selling a particular print so there is a wait of up to two weeks before receipt of your print to allow for time to print and ship.

DIGITAL PRINTS

Digital prints are made on acid-free matte-finish natural white 100# cover using archival digital inks. While digital prints are not the quality of a giclee in capturing every nuance and detail of color, texture and shading, I am still very pleased with the outcome and usually only I, as the artist, could tell where detail and color were not as sharp as the original.

CANVAS PRINTS

I have canvases printed as they are ordered so I rarely have any on hand. Smaller canvases are a 3/4″ in depth, canvases 12 x 16 and larger are 1-1/2″ in depth. I set them up so the image runs from edge to edge, then the sides are black or white or sometimes I slip in a color that coordinates with the painting.

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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.