Dreaming of multicoloured mice
I've already introduced our resident mouser JP. Although he is not our cat, he spends a lot of time in our garden, the attraction being the mice who live under our terrace . Other cats have always shown a passing interest in mouseville, but none have been as dedicated as JP. He spends hours lying in wait, and sometimes he is successful. When he is not mouse hunting, he sleeps on the terrace, or in the flower patch.
. I liked Andriacci's paintings with the brightly coloured animals, si I decided to use JP as a model for my quilt and took several photos of him (from a distance). When I was designing my quilt, I tried to make the cat and the mice angular as in some of Andriacci's work, but they didn't look right, so I decided to keep them a little more rounded and realistic . I quilted them first and then painted them with inktense blocks and pencils. I was pleased with the result once I finished the quilting, but was disappointed when I had finished colouring the quilt. I like the way JP has come out, but I'm not satisfied with my colour choices, finding the overall result not quite right. I think it's the background: it might have been better left in white.
Love the humor in your piece. I don't have a problem with your background as leaving it white you would lose some of JP. Maybe strengthen the charcoal of JP.
ReplyDeleteYour mice have such character! I love your story. Maybe the background could be darker, then all the animals would stand out better. Or just leave it alone...
ReplyDeleteI think I shall leave well alone: I worry about ruining it, and besides now that I'm further away from the making of it, it doesn't seem quite as bad as I thought.
DeleteHa, ha, ha....... great piece !
ReplyDeleteI love the way all our interpretations of a certain artist's work is so different . Your sleeping cat dreaming of those luscious mice is delightful. So glad your inspiration took you there.
ReplyDeletePS I am still jet lagged from a 6 week worldwide trip . So forgive the grammatical error .. should of course be "...are so different " !!!
ReplyDeleteI think the colours in your composition look great and work very well in your piece - perhaps you are just comparing it to the intensely saturated colour Andriacci uses? I really love the way you have the cheeky mice running around JP whilst he sleeps - it captures the same fun as the inspiring artist.
ReplyDeleteI think you have brought the humour into your piece with your cat seeminly oblivious of the mice who are having fun around JP. In reality I don't think they would have had a chance. A fun piece and giving it a really personal touch.
ReplyDeleteThose mice move fast. If they're not too far from the edge of the terrace JP has no chance of catching them. However, I have seen him catch two that were too far from cover. He can be very fast too!
DeleteGreat piece. I wonder if making the lines round the cat and mouse much darker would help them stand out more?
ReplyDeleteSuch an interesting little story about your piece - love it, Jinnie. What fun you must have had creating it! Perhaps you could outline JP and a few of the mice, to make them stand out better as Linda suggested.
ReplyDeleteHi Jinnie. I love your piece - the mice are such characters and you've done JP beautifully. I have used inktense blocks and I don't find them very intense. When I did my piece I found myself covering over the inktense sections with dye paint which gave a much more pronounced colour. And the "wood" is perfect as it is.
ReplyDeleteSuper fun, Jinnie. I can almost see his paws twitching as he dreams of all those mice for dinner. Nice one. H
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