Garden Variety Siamese by F.A. Moore
Media: Mixed. Oil on board w/ oil pastel highlights
Dimensions: original 12 × 12 inches
scanned 6900 × 6900 px @600ppi
Release Date: June 25, 2011
Two Siamese cats enjoying the garden, when their person comes looking for them.
 SoJie 14 Workshop Participant Recognition Award |  Philip Gaida Fine Art Award for Excellence in Fauvism SoJie 14, October 2011 |  Collaborative Connection 2nd Place SoJie 14, October 2011 |
FEATURED
2011-06-30 in For the Love of Cats
2011-06-27 in Cat’s Pajamas
See also:
Calico’s Corner
by F.A. Moore
Comments
Thanks for visiting the Garden Variety Siamese oil painting. I hope you enjoy it. —Frannie
OUTSTANDING PAINTING!!!
Vitta, thank you for your support. :)
– F.A. Moore
Impressionisme, fauvisme….go ahead dear Frannie, you’re doing good!
Thank you for your encouragement, Philip. You’re a champion.
– F.A. Moore
Excellent work, dear Frannie!
Béla, thanks so much!
– F.A. Moore
Oh, such a delight!
Frannie, I don’t know if this is going to sound OK when I write it; I hope so: When I first landed on this page and saw the image I thought of tapestries…those luxurious, saturated…exquisite ones from hundreds of years ago? Wall-size? Telling stories? Your cats have that story feel to them. Their expressions are wonderful! Each cat is a distinct “person,” too.
And those colors! WOW!!!! Beautiful mixes of colors! I especially like how you created the figure we can see only in shadow and by that reflected light.
One more thing is the way you show their fur. Very creative and effective. They look furry!
Instant, total fav.
I had not really noticed the fur until your mention of it, Robin. Thank you. I believe that comes mostly from the oil pastel drawing over the paint, and the subsequent shading layers of wash (both sepia and white), bringing out various shading over the bodies. But generally, I was just looking to present the “idea” of the cats. And you know from whence came the shadow idea.
I’m glad you see the personalities of the two. The right one seems to be a cuddler, maybe the baby growing up; the left one, more self assured and the more mature of the two.
Tapestry. Now that’s interesting. Thanks for sharing that wonderful insight of yours, Robin.
– F.A. Moore
Wow, fantastic! I am loving your cat series! Where to start first: the colors are so rich and warm, love them and I have to agree with Robin above there is a tapestry mood going on here. The cats are wonderful, the colors, the expressions, the fur are all excellent. And the way you implied the owner by subtly adding the orange figure as a shadow, I think, is brilliant!
Joanne, what a heartening comment, I have to say. It took some bravery on my part to deepen these colors to their current level. Here’s a look at the piece in progress . But it all happened with the decision to add the shadow of the owner. I just went for it.
Thanks for the upvote on Robin’s tapestry mention, too. That’s cool. Really appreciate your note here, Joanne.
– F.A. Moore
Hi Frannie you make me smile with your cats;-) and of course, you always work with the complementary coloures so well…what could be more classical than orange and blue …for me both of these colours compliment each other…..so a big compliment from me to you !!!
Have a nice weekend:-)
Brigitte, do you know I believe it is due to your influence that I am comfortable having the look hand-drawn cats on my oil painting. Now the cats were painted! But drawing over and coloring them some with oil pastels allowed me to have them look sort of hand-drawn, not just painted. I left the outline very bold for this reason. I’ve always loved that your paintings have your (possibly under-)drawings partially showing.
While I know it’s a different style entirely, and different technique, I’m sure that your pieces gave me the inspiration to combine drawing with painting.
Thank you for your wonderful note here and compliments!!
– F.A. Moore
Love the expressions (those eyes) and your wonderful complimentary choice of colour. Very nice work Frannie.
Jim, I’m enthused, indeed, that you came to look at my latest work. Working with the light ended up creating these strong contrasts, and I learned quite a lot doing so. Thanks for mentioning the eye expressions too!
– F.A. Moore
Great piece! Open, inviting and I love the tail…draws you right back in!
Thank you, Susan!! Leave it to you to catch that detail. It’s all still subconscious for me, though, even the color choices.
– F.A. Moore
Fabulous artwork!!
Thank you for coming by to look at this and other works. Really appreciate it!
– F.A. Moore