Sugar, Bernie’s Favorite Kitty
MARTHA MARKS COMMENTS ON A TREASURED KEEPSAKE, “SUGAR, BERNIE’S FAVORITE KITTY”:
In our 53 years of marriage, Bernie and I shared our home with four cats. I was the “cat lover” in the family. Bernie was the “cat tolerator.”
And not only that but… I used to joke that he was a “serial cat tolerator,” capable of tolerating just one cat at a time. Over all those years, he tolerated three of them—Snootie, Smokey, and José Gato—but he loved Sugar with all his heart.
Sugar blessed us with her presence from 1991 until her death in 2011. She was a tiny tabby, clearly the runt of her litter, when we adopted her from our local animal shelter. Her weight maxed out at 7 lbs, and in her last years we struggled to keep her above 5 lbs. But she packed more punch of sweetness, gentleness, and affection than any other creature that either of us two humans ever knew before or since.
Sometime around 2005-2006, I came home from a trip to find that Bernie had turned one of my photos of Sugar into this larger-than-life watercolor masterpiece. Sugar in her entirety was not as big as her likeness in Bernie’s painting.
This framed original portrait of our beloved Sugar is a family treasure that I won’t sell while I live, but I will gladly share it with other tabby-cat lovers as top-quality giclée prints in any size a buyer might want.
This original 21″ x 13.5″ painting is not for sale.
However, top-quality giclée prints on thick matte archival paper—at the original size, larger, or smaller—can be produced on request.
- Contact Martha Marks if you’re interested in a print.
Return to the ANIMALS page of the Watercolor Figures section.
This painting and all reproductions of it are © Bernard Marks Fine Art LLC. No unauthorized use is allowed. All rights reserved.