Stained Glass News article by Mosaic Maestro Martin Cheek

Pet Portraiture Part 2: Cats “Strong and silent, relaxed and independent, the cat walks into people’s lives and takes over”. (Taken from Thelwell’s ‘Magnificat’) The domestic cat is likely the world's most popular pet. They are quite independent and don’t demand much from their owners. They groom themselves and are affectionate, curious, and quite enigmatic. It is the latter point that humans have had a long time fascination with. Why or what is it about cats that remain so mysterious to their two legged friends?

Poets have tried to capture the essence of their wisdom, portray their aloofness, and captivate their antics on paper, in book and in film. But cats do as they please and we never quite know what a cat is feeling or how much they know! We can look at a dog and know if the dog is happy or sad, or at least take a good guess at what a dog feels. Cats, on the other hand, have rather expressionless faces so it's not as easy to ascribe emotions to them. This latter point is the subject of this article: How can we, as mosaic artists, create a mosaic piece of a cat that captures his or her personality!

I have made many mosaics of cats over the years both in private commissions and for pet memorials. One might think it is as simple as working from a photo or drawing in making a mosaic of your beloved Twiddle or Fluffy. And, you can do that but, then, ask yourself: What does your mosaic express about your cat’s personality? HOW do you illustrate those unique personality traits of your cat? Is he or she eccentric, humorous, mischievous, wise, clever, loving? To shed more light on how I work to create a sense of personality with cats in my own mosaic works, I review three different cat mosaics starting with the cat portraiture of Belle.

BELLE Medium: Fused glass, millefiori, smalti and vitreous glass

A dream inspired me to mosaic this cat. I couldn’t remember if I had actually seen this cat somewhere or if it was a completely fictional character. It was a big, beautiful fluffy Burmese cat that had a door slammed in his face. I made the mosaic as I had dreamt it and hung it on the wall of my studio, thinking no more about it. Then, one day a friend of mine, Jenny, came to visit my studio. When she saw the cat portrait, she exclaimed “That’s Belle!” It turned out that

the mosaic of Belle very much resembled my friend’s cat! The resulting surprise to me was that when I completed making the Belle mosaic, I couldn’t help but see myself in it! I often appear a bit out of whack and somewhat disheveled! I didn’t realize it at the time but I have since come to think of this mosaic as my self-portrait! Are there any personality characteristics of your cat that you identify with? If so, think about creating a mosaic of your cat to be a sort of self-portrait. FRANKIE Medium: Fused glass, millefiori, smalti and vitreous glass

I never got to meet Frankie. This was a commissioned memorial portrait. I asked my client many questions about the cat’s personality and viewed several photographs before the client decided that showing him sitting in his favourite spot, the sink, best captured his good natured and humorous personality. As a mosaic artist, I specialize in making custom glass fusions for my pieces. An important design consideration when I make a mosaic is assessing where to draw the line in how much of the work should consist of fusions in balance with the other mosaic materials I will use to create the entire piece.

Another important lesson on making your cat mosaic is how you design and lay the andamento (flow) of the mosaic. It needs to follow that of the cat’s fur. A good tip on the direction of the andamento flow is to imagine that you are stroking the cat, and that will tell you which direction is the most natural to lay the tile pieces.

One of the aspects that can completely transform a pet portrait is how the artist makes the eyes. The trick is to get the horizontal line right! It’s easy to make one eye in profile but to get a pair of matching eyes looking in the same direction takes perseverance and usually many attempts in getting it right.

Eye Fusions Once the client and I had discussed the eyes and she chose the pair she liked the best, it was time to mosaic the face and see if I could get a good likeness. When I initially show clients just the fusions eyes created for their pet, it is not unusual for the client to hesitate and not trust that the eyes will appear quite realistic because they do look odd until the mosaic nears completion. It takes a leap of faith to imagine how fusions work in the final piece. “Trust the process” is the best advice I give to my students as they will testify!

I made about six versions of eyes for the client to choose from. Below are two of those samples. For the final piece the client chose the brown eyes as seen in the final mosaic.

KILI Medium: Fused glass, smalti, millefiori and unglazed Cinca ceramic This mosaic was a commission I received earlier this year. She is a beautiful longhaired Maine Coon. The mosaic was made as a surprise present for my client’s daughter, who is a fan of T.S. Eliot, and an avid writer. The picture sent to me that I worked from in making the mosaic shows that Kili may also like the written word! It therefore seemed entirely appropriate to have Kili reading from ‘Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats’ along with a drawing of two Jellicle cats. I used a black

glassline pen to draw the Jellicle cats and the lettering of the book onto one large piece of glass. Once fired the ink becomes ‘fast’ and cannot be scratched off. I then had to decide what to do for the background. When deciding on background design, I evaluate the mood of the piece. I usually tell students to ask themselves ”Do you want to calm it down or whip it up!?” With Kili, a calm background did not distract from her fur, which, with a Main Coon, is one of the most beautiful characteristics of this breed. To create the fluffiness element, I created her fur entirely from glass fusions and added tiny millefiori for her whisker follicles. Real life Kili resting on written manuscript in client’s home

A note about the choice of background: I used unglazed Cinca ceramic brown tiles. Other possibilities my client and I looked at using included gold leaf smalti and gold leaf smalti reversed. Using gold leaf smalti would have given the piece an iconic feel, which seemed over the top. I liked the blue glass of the reversed gold smalti and it would have provided a complimentary colour to the subtle browns in

the fur. However, in the end, I decided to stay close to the color palette of Kili and used the Cinca ceramic brown tiles. In particular, because this tile was unglazed, it did not reflect light, and allowed Kili to come forward visually. THE BLUE CAT Medium: Fused glass, millefiori, smalti Finally, this last image is of The Blue Cat. The mosaic is as much about BLUE as it is about the cat. But, I was also inspired to create a sort of ‘sinister’ character in this portrait - a cat on the prowl and doing mischievous things in the night! The blue smalti and the darker smalti tiles for background brought out the nighttime element. The eyes are made with dichroic glass and that is what gives the dramatic glimmer, the shine of the ‘glaring eyes’!

My passion in doing pet commissions comes from working with the close connection between the client and their beloved feline companion. As I work on a mosaic, I find the feeling, the emotion and spirit of the pet coming alive as the mosaic is formed and the pet’s personality is revealed, reflected in the glass art! I hope you will find this article helpful and give you food for thought in making your own pet portrait.