Open edition with printed signature. Paper size 297 x 420 mm. Image size 250 x 312 mm
One of my pleasures when I have the time is browsing antique and junk shops and auction houses. I’m always fascinated by the many items on sale, often gathering dust on the shelves, and some of them take me back to my childhood days. All of them are steeped in history and, I’m sure, have a story to tell.
On one of these occasions, while I was looking through the various items for sale in an secondhand shop, I spotted some decorative cats. I have always been a cat lover so they immediately caught my attention. One was a cast iron door-stop, one was made of stone, probably a garden ornament, and the third one was made of wood. They were distributed around the shop amongst old bakelite radios, leather bound books, old musical instruments, some lemonade bottles and various other bric-a -brac.
This all gave me the idea for a painting! Cats have always been renowned for their curiosity - hence the expression ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ -and I started to wonder what a kitten might make of these various cats made from cast iron, stone and wood. When I was back in my studio I started drawing out my idea and, after a number of sketches where I moved the objects around, I came up with the layout for this painting.
I can only imagine what the kitten might be thinking while looking at these cats sitting on the shelf!
