Cat Adoptions and Administration are located at The Cat Box, 3015 46th Ave. N, St. Petersburg FL 33714. Dog adoptions, MEOW Now, foster, intake, and donation drop off are located at 2911 47th Ave. N, St. Petersburg FL 33714.

Whimsical Pet Portrait

Thursday, August 7, 2025
Location: Community Room, The Cat Box, 3015 46th Ave. N, St. Petersburg FL 33714
Price: $40

Turn your pet into a modern work of art through mixed media collage!

Queen Bunny Kitty by Heather Rippert

Join us for a Whimsical Mixed Media Pet Portrait workshop with Heather Rippert, Fine Artist

  • 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025
  • Community Room at the Cat Box, 3015 46th Ave. N, St. Petersburg
  • $40 per person all supplies included, but feel free to bring items from home to enhance your creation: paint, fabric, trims etc.
  • Bring your own beverage of choice!
  • Bring an 8.5 x 11 printout of your favorite photo of your pet to work with! (Color or Black and White)
  • Mixed Media Workshop- 2 hours. All levels welcome.

Buy Tickets Here

Our beloved pets bring so much joy into our lives!  Come and create a memorable image of your favorite pet, past or present. There are no rules here. What are the things you love most about your pet? What behaviors and expressions do you adore? Experiment and explore colors, patterns, forms, etc. that describe your pet. Use any colors, patterns, forms, etc. The focus is not on creating a realistic portrait, but to explore the elements that make you love your pet (past or present).

Meet the artist:

Heather Rippert, fine artist, has been painting and drawing from the time she could hold a pencil.  Growing up an only child, she discovered a magical world to disappear into every time she picked up art supplies.  Her high school art teacher and mentor, Michael Mulhern, was instrumental in her artistic development and love of watercolor. She received a BFA from Maryland, Institute, College of Art.  While there, she was hand-picked to attend a semester abroad at Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland where she delved into printmaking and black and white photography. 

Her love of water media was re-ignited in 2007, as she painted coastal landscapes of the Jersey Shore. This was instrumental in her decision to relocate to Florida in 2010.  Her masterful and sensitive watercolors, acrylics, and mixed media works explore the vast beauty of the natural world emphasizing light and mood. Rippert is continually selected for exhibitions and awards. Recently, she was one of ten who received an Emerging Artist Grant from Creative Pinellas.

Rippert has participated in Art Expo NY and Art Expo Las Vegas, was nominated Creative Loafing Best Local Visual Artist in Tampa Bay 2017, is a signature member of the Florida Watercolor Society, The American Watercolor Society, and was featured on Great Day Tampa Bay Live in June 2019 about her Solo Exhibition, 'Transitions' at TECO Public Art Gallery.

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