Sketching out my work before starting on a surface allows me to weigh up the composition and add or remove things. In this instance Flo is shown sketched above but she got rubbed out and moved into the central picture (previous post). Rum Tum in turn, moved on to the chair. I had realised that the glow from the flame would hide Flo and I wanted Mum’s candle as the focal point of the table with the statesman-like Rum Tum serving as a good table end.

This is the second of three of the exhibition pieces for the Carluke Jam and Ham Festival 2021. It’s nothing to do with streets but I like to participate in local art events and hope you enjoy the change of subject.

A candle has blazed on this particular holder on our kitchen table most nights for close to 19 years. We light it in the evening to invite the spirits of the ancestors to join us.

I’m no musician, but music of all kinds has been important to our family for as long as I can remember. Candlelight, music, stories, glasses filled with a wee dram, a pottery jug from Ireland – all part of our Kitchen Table at one time or other.

I used collage for the pottery/cats. I painted a thin layer of blue over natural straw-coloured tissue paper, then made more pattern marks with finger prints and the end of a brush. It’s flimsy and easy to tear but once it’s held in place with ‘matt medium’ it becomes part of the surface.

Here’s the finished piece – ‘A Night in with Rum Tum’.

Rum Tum, once a wild boy roaming the braes and trusting no-one. That said, since we moved in, he has worked out where his bread is buttered.

Thanks for reading 🙂

Ronnie