Prior to my artist’s talk* yesterday, I’d spent more time talking with people about cats than most of the rest of the work; proof if proof were necessary, that cats override the highest of high ideals. I began this series with no place in mind for it in the structure of the course, but naturally nothing stops cats butting in and owning their space. So here we have the cat at the front who believes that the cat at the back is her saviour and protector while the cat at the back believes the cardboard box really wasn’t worth freaking out over.

With animals, and these are mine, my aim is to represent them rather than replicate them, and for me no matter how impressionistic the rest of the work, the eyes must have life.

Despite being the smallest by almost half, the tabby is dominant in this relationship and so here she is larger than in real life. Similarly, Cat #2 beneath, who has squashed the top cat with her considerable weight and yet is still dangling over the edge of the chair, leaps into the air at the sight of a pair of trainers she hadn’t noticed the last three times she walked past them, is smaller. The only element in her world that she doesn’t run from is food.

I’m using acrylics on an old piece of canvas upon which I’d painted something indeterminate a few years ago. It’s stapled to a piece of card and has seams along two sides. The other two sides are rough-edged and a little frayed.

At this point Scaredy Cat is looking very much as she does in real life while the tabby has become part-fox. Ideally, I should paint over her head and give her another one, but will the first head disappear? Maybe if I use some dense acrylic gesso. I’m slowly coming round to that idea.

Now I’m wondering if I should leave the tabby out as this seems to work compositionally much better. There’s a diagonal from mid-right to bottom left, a containing horizontal across the top, and some structural elements in the top third that anchor the rest. Does the yellow go back as it was, lightened with white, or not at all? I’d like to create an optical zig-zag which would mean putting something tiny, and probably pink, in the sky near top left. Rationale: there is pink in the cat’s toes then in the cushion. Zig.

Possibly too strong, and it looks like she’s on a beach.

The rear leg needs some feathering at the knee to emphasise its position as her outward facing (left) leg, continuous with her undercarriage and not emerging from beneath. The chair covers on the left look like a wedding dress and I’m as sure as eggs that, should I need to create that sense of transparency any time in the future, I will instead make concrete. Nevertheless, it will have to be coarsened. The background feels better but, interestingly, asks the question – where is the chair back? The answer is that it’s in the same place as it was when the other cat was there, which is the deep hollow they’ve all made in the top cushion. The only difference is that the other cat is no longer squashed into a corner and extruded upwards because there is no room for her to do anything else. Still, if it has to be explained, it probably needs some compensatory intervention. I’ve no idea where she’s put her other legs.

Another day, another change of colour scheme! I’ve a strong feeling the orange/green/dirty yellow area in the middle has to go. Maybe an Alizarin wash will do it. The yellow wall should be fine with that shift from rusty orange to something more reddish.

A crop might work well although the tones are still out of sync.

Bingo! A wash of dilute Alizarin red has taken the rust out of the base layers and brought the tone more in line with other parts of the painting – apart from the dollop of ice cream bottom left.

Now I’m wondering about the window at the top – do the whole lot over with yellow/white mix? I’m warming to that idea although I’ll need to take care not to splash any stray paint on the cat or the rescue operation could result in disaster. The solution will be to lie the easel flat, prep the surface with white acrylic gesso, then smooth on the colour.

I like that. The plain background allows for the fussiness of the cat, the cushion, and the chair arm. Cat’s ears may need some touching up now they’re in silhouette.

16th June.

Et voila – Nora. And although part of the result is undeniably driven by lack of skill (the exclusion of the other cat, for instance), much of it is down to my preference for making a painting about something rather than of it. The photo stands alone as a photo – an instance of memorialised shared lives – while the painting is, to the best of my current ability, a distillation of those elements to arrive at a much less cluttered composition which seems to me to work better as a considered piece of art. One day though, I really must get a proper grip on that tabby.

SCH 2024

*This was my second talk in the virtual world, Second Life, where people wearing avatars have a social and often a business life, separate from the real world. I’ll be writing more about this shortly.