New paintings and regular art updates.
Late last night I decided to colour in a drawing with nail varnish. I did a picture of ‘the cat sat on the mat’, then I coloured in the background with marker pens.
I had difficulty taking a photo I wanted to include the sheen of the varnish but could only get it with the page tipped up. When you look at it straight on the image is a lot flatter. It’s just a design based on the old cat sat on the mat idea. I can imagine it being used as a children’s book illustration.
Cats are heat seekers
They seek the sun
The light
The warmth
Cats know
Where to go
On top of the fridge
Up on a cuboard
Heat rises
So do cats
Surveying their world
Their domain
Kingdom or Queendom
Whatever the outlook
On the windowsill
Over the radiator.
No doubt about it
Cats are hot!
This face
was chasing a spider,
five minutes ago.
This face
stole the beef
off my sandwich
this face
pushes her nose
in my face
when I’m sleeping,
pushes her paws
under the bedsheets.
Beware the claw!
This face
loves my knees,
that’s why
she reaches up
and puts her claws in them.
This face,
so bright, so cute, so sweet!
It’s starting, the transformation. Our outdoor cat is coming in for meals, sniffing noses with the other cats. He then yowls to be let out. But at least he can get warm if he wants. The others, indoor cats, are tolerating him. I think they need to start going out but I’m worried they will get lost. It all takes time.
In fact the outdoor cat has started rubbing round my legs and accepting a head scratch. He’s off again now, put into the night, but he had a shed he can sleep in. A cat bed, and an old jacket for warmth.
X
Let me up cat! I’m being squashed, but I love you. Sitting on my chest, purring, difficult to move. Phew he jumped down! He is handsome don’t you think? Poddled by his paws (where cats knead their paws). Sharp claws in my knee. Mutual comfort, keeping warm like a hot water bottle…
I went to a Batik workshop about three years ago when I first got my studio at Spode. I’d never done it before, but basically we used hot liquid wax as a resist to dyes. When you paint coloured dyes over the pattern you make, the colours are not absorbed into the cloth or canvas where the wax had been painted. Then you have to het a hot iron and paper and iron the wax out with the paper between the cloth and the iron so the wax gets absorbed into the paper. There is probably a clearer way of explaining, but as I say I only went to one workshop. My friend made this heavy frame for the yin yang cats. There is glass in it to protect the fabric. I was rather pleased with the result.
Our cat loves this ball, it’s a ping-pong ball covered in a knitted stripy fabric.
Suddenly there will be a clatter and the cat, who takes the ball upstairs in her mouth, is chasing it downstairs, then into the kitchen or along the living room floor.
She bat’s it backwards and forwards between her front paws, or under the settee then pulls it back out with her claws. The game goes on for half an hour or so. In which time she will run up and down stairs several times. If she was a footballer she would be a premiership star!
Last night I started throwing the ball up stairs and then she chased it back down. Having cats are fun.
On one side my cat in the mirror, on the other side the view of him across the bedroom. Surprisingly the first image was in the mirror. I think I had a bit of camera shake when I took the photo of him across the room. It’s also odd because there seems to be more depth of field (depth perception) in the first one. I might do more pictures of reflections and see how they turn out.
Our outdoor cat has decided to take charge of my hubby’s railway set. Luckily there is a pond painted in the centre so he can lie on it and not do too much damage. He’s got a heater in there so he is nice and warm. He’s also started coming in for a few minutes at night. Although he did swipe a paw at my boy cat last night. He’s happy, well fed, and has lots of fun.
I live on my screen
Hunched over my phone
Watching predictive text
Scoot by.
Ignoring my world
Lost in a haze
Then mugged by my cat,
Sat on my laptop…
Never ending clicks
Virtual dope?
Addicted to screens
Losing all hope…
Mallaband-Brown