This is one of my favourite paintings. I just love these two Bengals. They are so gorgeous and the position they’re curled up really makes me smile. It was such a joy to paint! I just wish I could have kept it.

Toffee and Thistle
14×11 acrylic on board
SOLD

This is a 14×11 inch acrylic painting on board. The background is made up of several layers of paint, the base colour was a warm pink with cooler lilacs over the top. As a result the background changes colour as the lighting changes, going from warm pinks to cool lilacs. Looks amazing but is very hard to photograph!

Here are a couple of close ups of the painting.

I love carrying a notebook with me in my bag, useful for notes, sketching phone numbers, all sorts. So when I found out you could make your own notebooks through blurb I was keen to try it.

The first one had to be a Bengal notebook! Well it has arrived and I’m very pleased with the result.

I’ve never tried anything like this before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The paper for the notebook is white uncoated paper and light weight, 90gsm, so I did wonder how well the images would print. Would they be too flat on uncoated paper or bleed through the pages?

But no! They’ve printed surprisingly well. :-) Maybe a bit lighter than you’d expect on a fine art print but they look pretty good and they don’t come through the thin paper either.

Here’s a photo of Cassie with her painting ‘The Boss’ in the book.

I’ve added some photos to flickr to show some of the pages in the notebook.

Or have a look or have a look at the notebook on blurb you can preview the book and even buy one.

The Bengal Notebook by Denise Laurent | Make Your Own Book

I love the way Ming, my snow Bengal cat, sleeps with a paw over his nose. It’s a pose I love painting. Here he is fast asleep on blue cushions, paw in place. :-)

Snooze is a 10×8 inch oil painting on board.

There is so much to choose from in the Bengal Friends Fund Raffle! All are welcome! Tickets are cheap and all sales benefit Bengal Friends Fund. You don’t have to register on the forum to take part in the raffle, although it is a great place to talk about Bengal cats. You don’t even have to have a Bengal cat to take part.

There are a lot of prizes, including wonderful jewellery, a Mariposa handbag, a cat exercise wheel, books, t-shirts, cat walking jackets, iphone 4 cases, and lots of other things! Oh and a print of your choice from me too.

Here is the Raffle thread showing the prizes:
http://phenomi.net/bengalchatter/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2927
There are items spread out over several pages.

Tickets are 5 dollars and can be bought here:
http://phenomi.net/bengalfriendsfund/index.php?SpecialEvents

Find out more about the BFF here www.BengalFriendsFund.org

I haven’t been updating Facebook or my blog as often as I’d like over the past month. Two of our cats have been ill. One of the Bengals, Ming, has Irritable Bowel Syndrome and had a bit of a crisis. He needed a stay in the vets but is back home now and looking better. Although he’s already complaining about his food!

And our elderly tabby has been getting thinner and thinner, even though he’s been eating really well. But now he’s on thyroid meds and putting the weight back on slowly but surely.

This is Ming sitting in the sun. I did this painting last year for the Society Of Feline Artists show. He was sitting in the same spot today enjoying the winter sunshine. :-)
It’s nice to have them both looking well again.

New this year is The Painted Cat 2011 Wall Calendar! Now you can get your feline fix all through the year with 12 different cats to add colour and feline fun to each month. The calendar is A4, 8 x 11 inches in size. There are 12 pages, 1 page per month, each featuring one of my cat paintings, as well as a cover and a back. It’s wire bound so it’s easy to hang on the wall and change the pages.

The paintings included are Hot Spot, Sugar Plum Fairies, Java, Mother’s Day, In The Pink, The Fishpond, Alice, Sunbathing, Doing The Washing Up, Favourite Toy, Lunchtime and The Carol Singers.

You can see all the pages in more detail, just visit me on flickr and have a look at the calendar’s flickr album.

Buy a 2011 Wall Calendar in the shop. Both UK and USA versions are available.

It’s taken me a few days but I’ve finally got the photos from Bromley sorted out and up op on flickr!  Here they are….

Or view the slide show.

Cats, Dogs and Other Animals is on at The Ripley Arts Centre until the 28th of August.

I have A new print, Bengal Kitten. This is available in the Bengal Gallery of The Painted Cat web site.

This is Smug Mug. You might recognize her, I used Smug Mug as the basis of this year’s new Christmas card ‘Snowflake Kisses’.

This is a small, mixed media painting on watercolour paper. Its 6×6 inches in an 8×8 frame.