He favors a palette of yellow with purple, pink and orange for flowers. Nature is his muse and inspires him to paint several times a year, most often during seasonal changes. His technique is streaks, dabs and splotches applied with his right paw. Meet Quint Cole, acrylic artist.

Born in 2012, Quint was the last of his litter left after adoption day at the pet store. Disguised as a need for buying litter, serendipity brought Carole and Catdad Steve, of Colehaus Cats blog, to the pet store where they saw the orange-and-white kitten. Quint and a black kitten, Olivia, were adopted into the Colehaus Cats family.

In his teenage phase, Quint began to show his personality, Carole says. He expressed his artistic talent with toothpaste-speck medium stylistically dabbed and smeared on the bathroom mirror. He experimented with a more texturized medium — damp cat litter — creating masterpieces in his signature style, first on the wall, then the closet doors in the cat room.

“We knew Quint was communicating that he needed something,” Carole says. “We did our best to listen. We moved the litter box and tried different litters, but he still decorated the doors. That’s when we wondered if he was intentionally applying artistic designs, so we redirected his natural talent toward a medium with less ‘eww.’”

Quint took to it. “We set up his cardboard ‘studio’ across the bathroom countertop,” Carole says. “We use petsafe, water-based acrylic paints and a 4- by 4-inch canvas because it is sturdy and easy for him to grip. He likes only a few seasonal colors at one time and insists yellow is one of the colors.”

Quint brings a stripy ball or mousie for company while he paints. He doesn’t lick the paint on his paws and doesn’t mind getting cleaned up. Quint’s paintings aren’t haphazard paw prints traipsed across paper. “Quint paints with focused intention,” Steve explains. “He dabs his paw in the paint, presses it, either a hard paw press or soft delicate press onto the paper, curls his paw up to his chest and looks at what he’s working on, directly and at the reflection in the mirror. It looks like he thinks about color, placement and composition.”

Quint doesn’t paint every day. He signals he’s ready by leaving toothpaste memos on the mirror. “Quint is sensitive to seasonal changes,” Carole says. “He sits in a window and watches clouds, birds and blowing leaves. He likes to put on his harness for a nature walk in the garden to sniff his favorite flowers, the large pink rhododendron and petunias, for inspiration,” Carole says.

Quint has an extensive portfolio and has sold and donated over 300 paintings. A benevolent artist, proceeds from art sales benefit cats in need of food, shelter and medical care. Quint’s artist story, samples of his work and his art shop can be found at colehauscats.com. Each painting is matted, signed and numbered; comes with Quint’s card, approved by one of the Colehaus Cats; and placed in a plastic sleeve.

“I believe each cat has something to teach us,” Carole says. “Quint taught me all I know about art, organizational tips and the importance of garden walks.”