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