Farewell, Naughty Brown Cat

So gutted to hear the devastating news about Naughty Brown Cat. No idea what his name was, but I call him that because he would nonchalantly meander into our garden and occasionally use it as his toilet. That was of course quite annoying! His owners, though, live across from us with whom we get along very well, and we hesitated complaining to them because we didn’t want that to affect the good rapport we have with each other. Besides, cats need to get out of the house, and it’s not as if the family had any control over it so we reluctantly accepted the situation. Then a few days ago, I had a casual chat with the Missus and upon asking how the cat was doing, I was informed the poor kitty had an accident and sadly passed away whilst wandering on his own. The family, especially the kids, were devastated. That was last August.

And I wondered why we haven’t seen him around for so long! We assumed that was because we had installed an anti-animal sensor in our garden to prevent cats for instance from entering, and it was working. The downside to that was though he then had nowhere else to go and had to explore elsewhere unknown. And now he is gone. I do feel bad about this. We had no choice, though, because let’s face it, who wants animal poop in the garden? And despite this cat being one of the main culprits, we even rejoiced good riddance for him not coming into our garden anymore, not knowing he had passed. I never wanted him dead. I actually liked him. And even miss him now. He may be one cheeky cat, but he did not deserve to die! Few days have passed and I’m still in mourning. And as a tribute to our feline neighbour, I thought a little painting would be sweet.

For this, I went for granulating watercolors. And how is this different from normal watercolors? The pigment particles are larger and heavier as well as shaped unevenly so they don’t disperse smoothly on paper. As a result, they clump together and appear on the paper surface, creating a mottled effect with an interesting texture of light and dark areas. I thought this would be perfect for the painting! Here, I combined the sets from Kuretake and Harmony, both from Japan, selecting the blues/violets for the sky, a variety of greens for the ground and a brown for the cat. The halo was first filled in with gold Posca pen followed by Finetec watercolors in yellow gold for the sparkle. A combination of greens from the granulating watercolors and the pearlescent green from the Finetec was chosen for the eyes. As finishing touch, aquarelle pencil helped add definition.

Now, I hope you like the painting, little kitty! Nobody is mad at you. You may have been up to no good, but I think you were very sweet too. Your family loved you very much. I wish I had known you better myself too and even played with you when you entered our garden. But you seemed so afraid and always ran away when I approached you. If only things were different. Hope you are in peace up in Heaven and making friends with all your other naughty feline companions. R.I.P. Naughty Brown Cat!