Forever 21 Grumpy Kitty - Cats Wearing Cats Series

Last night I finished painting this little grumpy Persian cat wearing a Forever 21 cat sweater that belongs to my friend and fellow artist, Robin (check out her work here: http://robincharlotte.com).  She wore it once to a gallery opening with me and was nice enough to send me a reference photo after I realized it would be perfect as part of the Cats Wearing Cats Series.  Like the rest of the cats in this series, I wanted the cat to be reflected in what they are wearing.  I found a perfect photo of a grumpy white Persian cat and put them all together. 

xoxo
Ray

Féline Meow - Cats Wearing Cats Series

A few days ago I finished this painting based on Brian Lichtenberg's FÉLINE MEOW t-shirts that are a pun on the CÉLINE PARIS shirts. I decided to paint a Siamese cat modeling the shirt because they always seem so chic and proper.  I also really love their beautiful eyes.

xoxo

Ray

Kitten Mittons - Cats Wearing Cats Series

I just finished this painting as part of the "Cats Wearing Cats" series.  While making my list of ideas for the series I not only looked at runway fashion, I also wanted to include some pop culture references.  Always Sunny In Philadelphia has been one of my favorite shows for years, and while watching a bunch of past seasons on Netflix, a little gear clicked and I knew Charlie Day's "Kitten Mittons" would make a good painting in the series.  Keeping true to the general concepts, this little kitten is wearing red mittens (similar to the ones the grey cat wears in the video), but I added green button eyes (to match the cat's) and a little knitted cat face on each one.  I also wanted the cat to look annoyed by the mitten on it's paw and to be reminiscent of the character of Sweet Dee since she always seems to get picked on by the guys.  I like that the cat looks like it's seconds away from ripping the little mitten to shreds, as I'm pretty sure a mitten on my cat Mia would last about 2.5 seconds.

Here's Charlie Day in his inspirational "Kitten Mitton" video:



xoxo

Ray

Pineapple Express Kitten - Cats Wearing Cats Series

Pineapple Express is one of those movies I can watch over and over and still laugh (and believe me I do).  I recently watched it after starting the concept of the Cats Wearing Cats series, and as soon as I saw James Franco's shirt I knew it had to be apart of it.  As you can see it's a screen print of a little ginger kitty getting eaten by a great white shark (amazing!).  Being true to the series's concepts, I painted a handsome ginger cat wearing the t-shirt and Franco's long sleeve undershirt.  If you notice made the cat's eyes a bit glazed over (for obvious reasons if you know the movie).  I also painted the cat wearing the gold chain shark tooth necklace that Danny McBride's character wears in the movie.  It seemed pretty perfect, almost as if the cat defeated the shark and that tooth is his trophy.  Danny McBride's characters always seem to wear interesting symbolic necklaces (again if you've seen his movies you'll know exactly what I'm talking about)… Below are the photo references I used for this painting: 

Vivienne Westwood SS14 - Cats Wearing Cats Series

This is another painting I recently finished which is part of the "Cats Wearing Cats" series.  For this one, I knew as soon as I saw Vivienne Westwood's SS14 collection that it would be an amazing painting.  I love all the vibrant colors and prints she chose for her Spring/Summer line.  As you can see I painted the cat wearing the outfit right off the runway - it was too perfect not too!  My favorite part was painting the blue and black floral skirt.  It took awhile to do, but I really love painting fabric and making it look three dimensional.  I also decided to paint a cat that looked similar to the kitten on Vivienne's shirt as that is part of the theme of the series.

To see this work in process check out my instagram page: @_rachelburt_ : http://instagram.com/p/lRKXWTGfP7/

xoxo
Ray

Mia in WildFox Couture - Cats Wearing Cats Series

I recently started a new series called "Cats Wearing Cats" which was inspired by the fact that everywhere I look on the runway I see kittens in fashion.  The concept started with MiuMiu's SS14 collection which has an amazing black cat print on a coat.  As soon as I saw it I thought of how great it would be if my own little black cat wore something like that.  From then on whenever I saw a cat in fashion I took a little note of it in the back of my mind.  This is my second piece in the series - again featuring my own cat Mia as the model.  She's wearing an amazing Wild Fox couture sweater (that has intentional holes in it, which is perfect because I'm pretty sure Mia would tear a sweater to pieces given the chance!) I also added a silver bird skull pendant for her to wear because she's completely (and ironically) terrified of birds.

xoxo
Ray

Thea Cadabra - David Bowie & Rainbow Shoes!

Thea Cadabra's shoe designs totally and completely blow my mind.  I chose to paint two of my favorites - one is of her "Lunar Loper" bootie - designed in 1979, it was inspired by David Bowie's song "Space Oddity." The booties are literally electric (the side lights blink and the back rocket glows and spins).  I painted them in acrylic (my new favorite medium) and chose to use the same font that is used on David Bowie's "Space Oddity" single. 

Her "All Weather" heels, were also painted in acrylic.  I loved painting the shimmery fabric in the clouds and rainbows.  The hardest part of these paintings was the fact that photo references of Thea's shoes are pretty hard to find.  Like several of my other paintings, I ended up arranging my own heels and boots the way I wanted to capture the composition and made a lot of educated guesses.  So far these are both my favorite pieces.

xoxo

Ray

Splash! Charlotte Olympia's Mermaid-inspired Shoe Paintings

I seriously love Charlotte Olympia's SS14 mermaid-inspired collection.  All of her designs are pretty amazing so I decided to paint two that are my favorite.  Both these lobster heels and her fish shoes are beautiful and highly creative.  I love how she pays attention to the little details that make each shoe incredibly special, unique, and most of all a work of art.    

xoxo
Ray

Barbie Heads & Spiked Stilettos

Recently I started painting my favorite shoes that I think are beautiful and inspiring.  If I had unlimited funds I would definitely own all of them, and 3/4 of my apartment would be my closet.  So I figure if I can't have them, I might as well paint them as a homage to their designers.  Plus it turns out I love painting pretty shoes almost as much as I love wearing them!

Below are two of my favorites - Jeffrey Campbell's Barbie shoes, and some seriously wickedly spiked red Louboutins! Both are sculpturally amazing in their own right, and put a twist on traditional footwear.  I also like the social statements they both make.

Many more to come soon!

xoxo

Ray 

Lilian Marie in Fendi SS'14

A couple of days ago I finished a painting of my childhood dog, so this time it felt right to paint my parent's dog Lilian Marie, who they had before I was born.  She was a sweet black and white Shih Tzu and was their little baby when they first got married.

I chose to paint another Fendi bag as I'm still fairly obsessed with the SS'14 collection (and this bag in particular), possibly because I've always been drawn to geometric designs, so I had to paint it.  The blue geometric background was also inspired by the collection in it's color and you can see the same pattern in the cut of several of the dress's hems.

The line is definitely worth checking out: http://www.fendi.com/us/en/collections/woman/spring-summer-2014

xoxo

Ray

Bunny l'Amour in Fendi SS'14

My mom has been asking me to paint a Westie in honor of my childhood dog Mummer (who we nicked named Bunny l'Amour) for weeks now and I finally finished this one for her.  I've been wanting to use Fendi's fun Buggie Bags in a painting so this seemed to come together perfectly.  I was inspired to do a geometric pattern in the background based off of other Fendi bags in the SS'14 collection.  Also Bunny's shirt is based off of the Fendi SS'14 collection as well.

Here is the photo of the bag I used for this painting:

And here's one of my favorite childhood photos (you can see little Bunny hanging out in the background!)

xoxo
Ray

Paco in Deap Vally Knitted Hat

This is one of my favorite paintings so far - little Paco wearing a Deap Vally band knitted hat.  Deap Vally is one of my favorite bands (they're amazing - listen to them here: http://deapvally.com/splash/)  Not only do those two ladies kick ass, they knit band merch (and actually met at a crocheting class!)

This concept was first inspired when I saw a photo of a dog wearing a winter hat, and then as I was randomly checking out Deap Vally's Instagram photos I discovered their amazing knitted hats.  It pretty much worked out perfectly like it was meant to be!

xoxo
Ray

Lola in Elsa Schiaparelli's vintage wedding veil

I've recently been working on a new series of pet portraits inspired by high fashion and based on pivotal fashion designers and their signature designs.  In this portrait little Lola has found Elsa Schiaparelli's vintage wedding veil (Circus Collection SS 1938).  Schiaparelli was at the forefront of avant guard fashion of her time and was known in the same circles as Duchamp and Dali.  

The veil is incrusted in sapphire bead designs to look like "hair" or (medusa-like) "snakes" and makes a statement about Elsa's personal views of marriage. 

Below is her beautiful design sketch, as well as it being worn and on display at the Philadelphia Museum of art.

xoxo
Ray

Jonesy's Vivienne Westwood Let It Rock Dog Portrait

I just finished painting this portrait of a cute Yorkshire Terrier wearing a vintage Vivienne Westwood t-shirt.  

I started this painting knowing that I wanted to do something inspired by Vivienne Westwood's early punk collections, and I've always loved her chicken bone "Rock" shirts.  It seemed perfect (and humorous) to have a dog wearing a bone shirt spelling out "Bones."

Vivienne Westwood Collection "Let It Rock" Chicken Bone T-shirt - 1972

I decided to paint a Yorkshire Terrier because they're so cute, but can look a little scruffy and can be a bit feisty (and can pull off punk).  I named this little guy Jonesy after Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols (who is amazing).  Also, if you look closely you can see that Jonesy is wearing Sid Vicious's iconic chain necklace as a collar and I added a few safety pins for effect.

xoxo

Ray