Claudia’s earliest paintings were executed using traditional hand-painting methods including paint brushes, palette knives, palettes, and water media paint on watercolor paper. The first year, she only painted abstracts. They often had metallic ink and paint features. In 1994, she experimented with subjects. She painted room interior scenes, building exteriors, cityscapes, and landscapes. She quickly found her favorite subject matter and true calling to be painting felines. She named her painting style ‘abstract realism’ because the cats looked almost real; their markings and eye colors remained true. But the cats themselves were brightly colored and abstract in nature. When compared to the next collection, these first pieces looked primitive.