Tiptoe the Cat

egg tempera on panel, 40 x 39 cm, October 2022

I wanted to paint yellow. I have boxes in the loft of the studio with pages from wallpaper books. The fabric is in a cupboard and mostly comes from charity shops. I set up the background colours and then added the objects. I still have flowers in the garden!

I didn’t have a specific idea when I started, picked up the cat from my new items shelf. I had found the tiny little cat at my local charity shop for 50 pence. He/she lived in my purse for weeks. As I painted, I thought about Mary Fedden and Elizabeth Blackadder (whose work I love, but don’t often think about). As I painted around and around in a way I explained to Patrick as like tuning an instrument, I had to admit that ‘tiptoe’ stole the show.