Still Pat McCarthy

The rabbits weren't the whole animal. Just the one she'd gotten to first.

Every rabbit in Never Once Commissioned came out of the same studio near Adamstown, and so does everything below — a Cavalier seated on a blue cloth with a book close by, a spaniel gone gold in the light, a cat who fell asleep in the middle of somebody's library and got painted exactly like that. Same unhurried signature in the corner. Same Florentine boards and gilt plaques she's always worked on.

We went back for more because the rabbits went fast, most of a full room of them in five days once we put a little money behind the reel. So we asked what else was sitting in the studio. The answer, this time, was dogs, mostly, plus one cat who's clearly decided the place is hers now.

Nobody commissioned any of this either. She just painted what was in front of her, and this time it wasn't rabbits.