There are a lot of first among this Cat series. When I began making Cats in earnest, they demanded that I innovate and create in ways I heretofore had not. The shape of the Cat body is one of those innovations. I would make a detailed understructure for them, something I rarely if ever did while making Frog sculptures. I wanted a more shapely body for a Cat, so I found myself working that way.
I also wanted a wider pallate than I usually work with. I am not a virtuoso with different bronze and copper patinas. I know how to produce a few. They work very well. But that's it. I started working with other colors. Brown, for example. I applied various chemicals and chemical recipes to the sculpture, and got different colors, but none that I was completely happy with. So I began, timidly, at first, applying oil paint in various areas and in various ways over the patinated sculpture. This ultimately produced some very nice effects.
Eventually, though, I grew weary of being so timid with my application of paint. At one time, I had been a painter - of pictures. I had put that aside many years ago because I had to focus on sculpture. But now I found myself wanting to paint again and feeling that I could. This Purple Cat - let's call him George, the Purple Cat - was the first Cat that I actually experimented painting the Cat as if it were a painting rather than my trying, once again, to hide the fact I was applying dabs of paint into the overall patina. And this turned out well. At least I like it.
I found myself working on this one like Seurat. Not that it is as remarkable as one of those paintings. If you have ever seen a Seurat in person, you know what I mean. They are exquisite jewels, every one. You can stare at them for hours. (Maybe with a coffee break in between those hours.)
My son Julian told me emphatically that he loved the little spot where it looks like a hole of some sort, painted that way. That spot just sort of happened that way while I was painting, and I went with it, emphasizing it as I continued to paint. I painted another to go with it. It looks bizarre. But then, this is a whimsical Cat I was painting.
Such effects are called tromploi. It means, basically, a visual trick within a painting, such as painting a realistic looking insect on the edge of a painting, as if the bug had landed on the painting. This sort of thing was done frequently during the Renaissance.
I'm all for tromploi in my paintings and sculpture. I like it very much.
Height: 22" Width: 13" Depth: 16"
Oil paint on shaped and brazed copper. Made by hand, by me, Beau Smith. January 2024.
Signed and dated.
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