Cats with coats of spring colors

With all the things I have going in my life I need to clone myself about a dozen times. For my blogs and websites I need at least two or three copies of myself. This isn't about delegating. This is about me needing to be in a dozen places at the same time. That is my excuse for not updating my blogs and websites on a regular basis. Okay, enough said!

In the recent Culver City Art Group Holiday Show I was tickled to win second place in the Members' Theme which this year was Colors of Spring. My piece, a tile tryptich, was a last-minute entry. I painted the tiles on Wednesday and Thursday, put the tiles in the kiln at midnight on Thursday and took them out at noon on Friday. They were still warm as I was gluing and grouting them into the frame. Whew, that was close! Had I not made the effort I would have missed out on a ribbon.

I really racked my brain thinking up an original idea for this theme. I certainly didn't want to end up with anything you would normally associate with the spring season but I did want to work with spring-like colors, because, after all, that was the title of the theme. I had already painted four cat tiles for the show in shades of black, white and grey so I decided on more cats. What could be more obvious?

I was pleased with the way the tiles came out and how they worked together as a tryptich. Of course artists are always their own worst critics. At least I am, always seeing the mistakes in 45-foot-high neon signs glaring out at me. A good thing nobody else is that nit-picky. I will be aware of that issue next time and not make the same mistake twice, or at least, not three times.

So I present to you my hand-painted ceramic tile tryptich, Cats with coats of spring colors. Reproductions of these three tiles are now available at www.RMWdesigns.com under the Cats! Cats! Cats! section.

Also, I have updated my ceramics website at www.RMWceramics.com although there still remain a lot of images to post.

(Photos and designs copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Gauguin and the Tuxedo CatI was looking through some old photos on disc and found my cat Friday staring back at me from the screen. The image was screaming "TILE!" For the background I immediately thought of the rug in Guaguin's "Arii Matamoe (The Royal End)" which I wrote about recently.
He is a handsome guy, isn't he?
Ceramic tile, 6"x6"
(Photo and design copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Catalina Cats

As a self-proclaimed tile addict, my favorite thing to do when I visit Catalina Island (just a short boat ride from Los Angeles) is to hunt down all the beautiful tiles that adorn the buildings and walkways in Avalon. (And I highly recommend the Jewels of Avalon Tile Walking Tour.) But just as ubiquitous, and beautiful, are the feral cats of Catalina. T-shirts and other souvenirs of the cats are easily found in the shops. So for me to paint a tile of a Catalina scene was well overdue. I just retrieved this one from the kiln this morning. I have a companion tile that I'm starting to work on now but for the first one I decided on the most famous landmark, the Casino Ballroom. Inviting you into the scene are my two friends, Friday and Pharoah!

(Designs and photos are copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Tile Two Years in the Making

In 2005 I took a trip to Italy with my friend JM. Fortunately, she is a very adventurous lady and we were able to leave the group and find our own way around on many occasions. This was one of them. While the others paid an exhorbitant amount of money to visit one island at Lake Maggiore, three of us took off on our own and for much less money were able to get to three places, including Pescatori, where I took this photo. For two years I thought about this photo, and finally it all came together and I was able to paint the tile. So here is the tile and the original photo. I already see another version of this and can't wait to get started. But I have to clean up the house today so it will have to wait.

(All designs and photos on this blog copyright Roslyn M Wilkins and not to be used without permission.)