By Mike Kinney
It is raining cats and dogs (portraits) at this Richmond art studio.
Linda Ruiz-Lozito, longtime owner of Wildcat Arts at 1517 Elm Ave., recently began creating animal portraits because, well, they are “just fun to paint.”
As we’ve reported, Ruiz-Lozito is a graphic artist also known for her fine art, landscapes and portraits. But she’s recently expanded her interests to include animals.
She first created a pet portrait of a wide-eyed Chihuahua with big ears as a gift for a friend. Next was a portrait of a crazy-eyed husky puppy she’d been helping to puppy sit.” They were amusing to paint with bright colors on wood panels,” Ruiz-Lozito said. “So, I painted my pets and friend’s pets.”
The series of pet portraits are in oil paint on 8″ x 8″ wood panels that Ruiz-Lozito primed with bright red cadmium paint.
“You can’t help but paint in lively colors when your base surface is already bright red,” she said.
Some of her subjects are past pets, “so it was nice to honor and remember them,” Ruiz-Lozito said. She loves painting her current Husky, a rescue that was abandoned at age 2 to 3 years old.
“Cats are harder for me to paint I think because they don’t have the exaggerated features dogs have,” she said. “Cats are still enjoyable to paint.”
Ruiz-Lozito sees her art expanding to include wildlife, or even a cow.
“Fine art has been a grounding force in my life,” she says, “Although graphics paid the bills better.”
Find out more about her work at WildcatArts.com.
