Cats 貓

Cats
1999- / Ink paintings, sketches, linocuts and woodcuts / Exhibitions: “Street Cat”, included in the exhibition “City Life”, 2000-01; the other pieces were occasionally included in other small shows

I consider painting cats as a good exercise to train my brush technique. I once painted a street cat waiting to be fed by an old woman. The work was later acquired by the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 2001.
After painting that street cat, I moved to a small village in the New Territories and stayed there for one year. During that year, my landlord’s cat gave birth to two litters of kittens. I thus made a lot of sketches of the kittens.
Later, I spent two years in Hong Kong SoHo, where I once kept an abandoned kitten and named it SoHo. The kitten was later adopted by a friend before it had the need to strop its claws as all cats would do. SoHo was then a curious kitten. It would jump onto the keyboard when I was on the computer, or onto the drawing pad when I was working on a sketch. Some of my sketches of SoHo were turned into woodcuts and brush-and-ink paintings, including two self-portraits. – FS

貓
1999- / 水墨, 速寫, 膠板及木刻 / 展覽: 「街貓」曾在2000-01年的展覽「城市生活」中展出; 其他多屬練筆之作，僅偶爾在畫廊展出

我不時畫貓，作為練筆及自娛。 我有一張畫，題為「街貓」，畫的是名副其實的街貓，等着善心人喂飼 (2000-01年展出後成為香港藝術館的藏品)。這是我較早繪寫動物的畫作。
畫「街貓」那年，我曾遷入新界一處小村，鄰居的貓狗成了寫生的模特兒。那一年，房東的一隻黑貓先後生了兩窩小貓，提供了不少畫稿。
再之後，我在港島的SoHo住了兩年，期間收養過一隻小貓，並名之為SoHo。這隻小貓顯然是幼小病弱，被人遺棄在後巷，但後來養得很健康活潑。因為貓稍長就要磨爪，只好在此之前轉送友人。這隻貓很好奇，你用電腦，牠跳到鍵盤上去；你畫速寫，牠爬到畫簿上去，還會伸爪去抓筆。描畫SoHo的速寫，後來有些轉成了版畫和水墨，其中有兩張用來配自畫像。 – FS

—

Cover image
Sweat Dream 好夢
2005, ink and colour on paper 水墨設色紙本, approx 65 x 65 cm
Cats are apparently good sleepers. They like to “lie flat”.
貓天生能睡，很會「躺平」。

Project gallery (Please click the image to view it in full)
1. Nine Postures 一貓九相
2005, ink and colour on paper 水墨設色紙本, 27 x 69 cm
An abandoned kitten kept by the artist in 2005.
2005年在街上發現這隻被棄的小貓。

2. Joy 樂
2005, linocut 膠板, approx. 23 x 16 cm
Having a sketch session? It would join you.
你動筆，它插爪加入。

3. Life Image (self-portrait) 寫真 (自畫像)
2008, ink and colour on paper 水墨設色紙本, 61 x 96 cm
Models for free.
免費模特兒 –– 兩個。

4. “Bush Meat” and “Street Meat”
2005, woodcut 木刻, approx. 28 x 22 cm
One of the 15 woodcuts to illustrate a book, If You Get Far Enough Away…, by Bill Barron. Bill once kept two cats when he was working in Africa. He named them “Bush Meat” and “Street Meat”.
朋友Bill Barron出書，邀製插圖。15張小版畫的其中一張是他在非洲工作時收養的兩隻貓，取名很怪異。

5. A Cat Painted Simplified Strokes 減筆貓
2005, ink and colour on paper 水墨設色紙本, approx. 60 x 40 cm
A simple study, practicing how to minimize the number of brush strokes.
隨意練習，用筆盡量從簡。