Quint’s Art

Note:  Regrettably, Quint has completely sold out of his art as of January 5th 2020. While we are uncertain of our future, we don’t like to say he will never paint again. Anything could happen to help us keep our home and keep all of us together. Please keep us in mind, think good thoughts and perhaps Quint will, once again, be able to share his passion for painting.

Quint’s Artist Story

In 2012, we adopted a lanky orange and white kitten and named him Quint. Months later, we inadvertently discovered young Quint was an artist. Rather than enjoy his daily “paintings” of wet litter on the walls of his cat room or smeared soap or toothpaste on the bathroom mirrors, we worked with him to direct his talent onto artist paper and canvas using child and pet-friendly acrylic paint. He took to it immediately.

We originally set up a “studio” of sorts using a huge cardboard box on the floor in a bathroom, and while he enjoyed the box, as most cats do, the cardboard walls seemed distracting to him. It also hindered our photography attempts at capturing his efforts.

Before long, we broke down the box and saved the cardboard for use as his studio floor. Saves scrubbing paint off the bathroom countertop, too.

Knowing nothing about art, paint or medium, together we learned about art paper weight (we preferred 246 pound because of the canvas-like surface texture and its ability to remain flat when wet) and how Quint liked using the heavy art paper but really enjoyed painting on 4 inch by 4 inch canvas because he could grip and hold one side of the small canvas with a paw.

Unfortunately, canvases and canvas shipping costs were just too much to keep up with so Quint stuck to heavy artist paper.

Quint also taught us not to mix too many colors at once, either in his paint bowl or on the paper, the importance of allowing colors to dry in between painting, and that he had favorite colors that he’d prefer to use exclusively. In 2014, his favorite paint color was kiwi green. In 2015, his favorite was pink. In 2016, he seemed to be obsessed with everything yellow. In 2019, it was various of shades of orange.

Quint sold and donated close to four hundred paintings from 2013 to 2019. With the exception of his final sales, all proceeds from the sale of Quint’s art, minus expense of art supplies, were used to help feed and shelter feral and stray cats, to supplement medical expenses for cats in desperate need, for spay and neuter costs and to help special needs cats whenever possible.

Quint enjoyed painting four to six times a year and was most influenced by the changing seasons. He loves going for his annual spring and summer walks in the garden where fresh air and bright flowers grab his attention. Then, it was back inside to his makeshift bathroom studio to release his passion to paint.

While his mom chooses the colors to work with on any given art series, Quint favored purple, pink, and orange flowers and yellow and kiwi green paint. He doesn’t mind wet paws and preferred to bring a toy, mousies in particular, sometimes a favorite stripy ball, to most painting sessions. He tended to step a paw in the paint tray (Quint pawed primarily with his right paw, though used both) and varied between dabs, streaks and splotches on the medium. He had a soft paw and a hard paw method that was his alone, to use whichever whenever he felt like it, like a true artist would choose soft or bold brush strokes.

We’d been asked many times to capture Quint’s painting on video, that this would be YouTube gold and would bring more attention to Quint and his cause of helping other cats in need. We’d also been accused of exploiting an animal for financial gain. It was difficult to explain how we’re simple folk trying to live simple lives in a complex world and that included having never owned a smart phone or video device. Quint was very wary of the camera we brought into his studio; all photos were taken quickly and had proved to be a major distraction to the artist at work. Simply said, he quit painting when he saw or heard the camera.

We feel fortunate that Quint is in our lives. He’s a member of our family, before ever being an artist. We work hard to give him the best life he could possibly have and never pushed him to paint. He alone made that decision and we won’t have it any other way.

In 2019, job layoffs, financial strain and the very real potential of losing our home forced us to stop offering Quint’s art for sale. This means Quint will no longer be able to paint because of the likelihood of, literally, having no place to paint. Should our financial situation change or improve, look for that announcement on the Colehaus Cats blog.

We thank you for visiting, for reading Quint’s artist story and thank you for helping us help Quint help others over the years.