The artwork I chose as my inspiration was ‘Boschbrand (Forest Fire)’ by Raden Saleh. Raden Saleh was an artist from Indonesia who lived in the late 19th century. He created many art pieces, mainly based around interactions between animals. However, what made Raden Saleh’s artwork unique from other animal artists was that he gave each animal he painted a very human-like expression, yet the colour palette would be gentle and warm, contrasting with the subjects of the painting. In my piece, I attempted to show an expression of nonchalance and carefreeness on the cat.

The main reason I chose this piece was because I was drawn to how the colours in the artwork were so vibrant - yet so cold, which created lively contrast within the painting. I attempted to use that same effect in my piece, by creating grass that had both warmer and colder strands. I did this by using larger amounts of yellow and blue in different tones of green. The setting in my artwork is the Seychelles, which is one of the many countries I am from. As you can see in the clouds, I chose the number ‘0’, as it represents the roundness of coconuts and tortoise shells, which are some of the things that make the Seychelles such a unique country.

I chose a cat as the subject of my piece as many cats roam around freely in the Seychelles. Cats are free and independent creatures - and in Seychelles, people have cats as pets, however they are never restricted to a house and often leave and come back whenever. I attempted to represent the freedom of a cat in my artwork.