Not people who paint cats, but cats who paint.

PINT-SIZED POLLOCKS

Oscar, an orange tabby from Saskatchewan, Canada. Owner Anna Scott recognized his potential when Oscar started playing with the water in his dish. He swirled it around with his paw before drinking it, and Scott thought he might be trying to express himself. So she mixed food coloring and water, laid down some paper, and let Oscar go to town. The result was a collection of blue, green, and red abstract watercolors that Scott, an artist herself, showed at a local gallery.

Kali and Figaro from Chicago. These feline friends used nontoxic paint to create swirling red, yellow, and blue patterns.

Frank, an orphaned feline artist living at an animal shelter in Oregon, used suede for his canvas and crafted a piece called Three Blind Mice that made it into a local art show. Patrons sipped wine and called Frank “Pollock with paws,” an allusion to what they believed were similarities between the cat and 20th-century abstract painter Jackson Pollock (who would have most likely loathed the comparison). All this attention not only got Frank’s paintings into the public eye; it also got him a home. The cat was adopted just before the show’s opening night by a family who enjoyed his work.

Buddy D. Holly. The kitties’ paintings don’t just adorn refrigerators. They get displayed—and even sold—at art galleries, animal shelters, and regional shows all over the United States. The San Francisco SPCA, for example, sells cat art prints for $15 apiece. The cat artist Bud D. Holly commands up to $250 for an original painting.