Yılbaşı Arifesi - New Year's Eve

Painting of the Day
Watercolor, 5"x7"

$100 Please send me an e-mail if you would like to purchase this.


With only a few hours to go till the start of the new year in my time zone, I would like to wish all my friends and loved ones, wherever they may be, a very happy new year.

Bir kış sabahı - A winter morning

Painting of the Day
Watercolor and gouache, 5"x5"
(Photo reference courtesy of Ahmet Sürücü.
Thank you very much, Ahmet.)

Finished this on Christmas Eve, but did not get around to posting it till now. Taking it slow during this festive season is probably not a bad thing. Besides, it can be a good time for contemplation and renewal, processes that cannot be hurried.

Yeşim - Jade

Painting of the Day
Watercolor, 5"x5" NFS
(Thanks once again to my friend Ahmet Sürücü for the use of his photograph for this painting).

It's hard to shake an old habit - I had to do just one more cat painting. I don't know, perhaps it was because I had already completed 12 paintings for my calendar, so there was no pressure with this one, but I have to say this is my personal favorite. I've laid this painting down on the floor of my studio, where I can see it every time I walk in or out or just turn my head, and it seems that this kitten just wants to jump off the paper and come to life.

After further deliberation, I have added a 13th month to my calendar, January 2010, and changed the cover. You can preview the calendar by clicking on the link in the sidebar.

Cats of Turkey Watercolors - 2009 Calendar

"Tarçın - Cinnamon"

Painting of the Day
Watercolor, 7"x5"

Yes! My cat calendar for 2009 is complete, and is being published on Lulu.com as we speak. I will post a widget in the sidebar as soon as I figure out how to. I published last year's calendar with Photoworks, and I really liked its ease of creating, simple format and sturdy paper, but their pricing (relatively high) and payment policy did not make me happy. I switched to Lulu after seeing Suzanne's book, "The Age of Flowers" published there. I have to say, though, that for the calendar format, it was a chore to accomodate both horizontal and vertical images in Lulu's predefined themes. Please let me know if you encounter any problems accessing my calendar, its preview, or if anything displays wrong. I appreciate the feedback. Thank you, on behalf of the cats, too...

Today's cat, Tarçın (Cinnamon), is an artist's cat. She belongs to my dear friend, the painter Kemal Çelik, and spends her time snoozing in his studio in Pirinç Han in old Ankara, on a comfortable sofa covered with kilims. I dedicate this painting to Kemal and his cat, hoping I will see both of them again soon.

Papatya - Daisy

Painting of the Day
Watercolor, 5"x7" NFS
(Photo reference courtesy of Ahmet Sürücü. www.flickr.com/photos/karbeyaz/3079661151/ Thank you very much, Ahmet.)

Cats again

"İnci - Pearl"
Painting of the Day (December 12)
Watercolor, 5"x7" NFS



"Nergis - Daffodil"
Painting of the Day (December 11)
Watercolor, 7"x5" NFS

Two more cats for the calendar. Yesterday, a beautiful Angora cat crossed our front garden, which gave me the inspiration to paint one of these lovely, dignified animals. An unusual thing about them is that their eyes are often different colors.

Petunya - Petunia

Painting of the Day
Watercolor, 7"x5" NFS

Two more cats

"Nilüfer - Lotus"
Painting of the Day (December 6)
Watercolor, 7"x5" NFS



"Mimoza - Mimosa"
Painting of the Day (December 8)
Watercolor, 7"x5" NFS

Two more cat paintings. I am trying to complete enough cats for another calendar before the end of the month, the end of the year. I'm beginning to feel a little like a one-person cat-painting factory at this point, which is not how I like to work, but I hope I can do these lovely animals justice despite the time crunch. I have very fond memories of Nilüfer, who is part pet, part mascot of Angora House Hotel in Ankara, where I stayed for two weeks in September. Officially banned from the premises, she managed to work her way into the courtyard and the hotel proper at least half a dozen times a day, where she found food, water and affection from the staff and guests. This painting shows her atop the courtyard wall, which she had managed to climb, only to mew in great distress once she realized it was not as easy to get back down again. Gökhan, the hotel clerk, came to the rescue with a cushion from one of the courtyard chairs, on which he carefully lowered her.
One evening in the courtyard, when the temperature was only a little above freezing, Nilüfer(not her real name, but it would be too complicated to explain her actual name here) crawled under my jacket, providing warmth and comfort for both of us. Cats and dogs and other animals can be our pets and spend their lives with us, but every now and then you meet an animal whose life you can share only for a short interlude, yet they stay with you. To those animals I dedicate these paintings, and this year's calendar of cats.

Şebnem - Dew

Painting of the Day
Watercolor, 5"x7" NFS

The third of the Ankara street kittens. Sister of Karanfil and Yasemin, this bundle of gray fluff wanted to come home with me...
I will write about using gouache and using photos soon, but December is starting to get the better of me, please be patient.

Sislerin içinden - From inside the mists

Painting of the Day
Watercolor, 5"x7"

$100 Please send me an e-mail if you would like to purchase this.

I've been putting off posting this for a few days, because I had planned to write a little about using gouache with watercolor (part 2 of the tagging obligation I've set myself), which is what I did in this painting, but I can't find the time to write anything meaningful or even coherent right now, so here it is, without elaboration for now. Just a little figment of my imagination.