Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Local artist and lover of cats Lisa Ray Koenig is combining her two passions to help raise some money for the Napanee Community Kitten Rescue (NCKR).
To do that she will be selling her Groovy Cats paintings at Napanee’s Pet Panache, located at 21 Dundas St. E in Napanee.
“I was looking for a distraction of what was happening, the chaos, the unknown and because I had previously taken just a couple of the art classes at the Gibbard District, I had some of the paints,” said Koenig. “So I just started collecting more paints, more canvasses, more brushes and Groovy Cats were born.”
The Groovy Cats is a series of paintings in her own unique style, featuring playful felines in a wide range of settings. Lately they’ve evolved to a ‘find Felix among the birches’ theme, where she paints a tuxedo cat hiding among black and white trees.
One of Lisa Ray Koenig’s ‘Find Felix’ paintings.
“Sondra Elliott, the owner of Pet Panache, she saw my work on Facebook and she reached out to me to see if I wanted to do an art show and sale type of deal,” said Koenig. “Then we just started talking further and I thought let’s do a charitable (fundraiser) for Napanee Charitable Kitten Rescue and let’s have 50 per cent of those proceeds go directly to the Kitten Rescue because they do such incredible work. It’s just so heartwarming what they do to take that time and they’re completely not for profit, they don’t rely on any grants, it’s simply them doing it out of a love to rescue feral cats or these kitten strays.”
The NCKR is a network of foster homes that works to adopt stray cats into permanent homes.
Also included in the Pet Panache display will be work from members of the Rivers Edge Art District, including paintings from Joanne Kells Chalmers and Lynn Barnett.
The charity sale is now ongoing at the store and will continue through the holiday season.