Thai rice field planted to make a picture of a cat by artist farmer

The Bangkok Post has published they really nice and interesting picture of a cat holding onto a fish and about to eat it. It looks a bit like a painting but when you inspect it carefully you can see that it is a rice field. Criss-crossing the field are pedestrian walkways for the farmers to gain access to the field I guess.

The rice field picture of a cat was created by a farmer and an artist: Thunyapong Jaikum in rice fields in the Chiang Province.

The photo is from Reuters.

The work of Thunyapong Jaikum in rice fields in the Chiang Province. Image: Reuters from the artist I guess.

They expect thousands of people to turn up to have a look at it. And to enjoy it I'm told they built or are building viewing platforms as that is the only way you can enjoy it.

The photograph must have been taken with a drone from several hundred feet up. And that's one problem with this excellent project. You won't get the same view from a viewing platform which is perhaps 80 feet up.

As you can see it is green and brown with some grey for the fish.

I'm not sure how they did it but the green areas are probably the growing rice in the field while the brown areas are probably the earth (or different coloured rice seedlings).

How did the artist map it out? They don't explain. I'm going to guess but I could be completely wrong! They clearly used a drone to photograph the finished image.

I would like to suggest that they used the same drone to create the image. There were two people. One operated the drone and the artist did the marking out.

The artist was able to look at himself as he marked out the ground because with these drones you have a screen on the controls which allows you to see what the drone sees.

As the artist was able to see himself on the ground he could move around marking out the dark areas with poles or some other brightly coloured object which was easy to see from hundreds of feet up.

When using those marked out areas he was able to plant the rice or clear the rice from those areas. I would think it was likely that he planted all the rice so it was all green and then removed some of the green by removing the planted rice to reveal the earth below.

If the brown areas are not earth they'll be some other plant as I am told the rice plant does not change colour when growing. Although the Bangkok Post says that the rice seedlings change colour from brown to green. My research says otherwise.

"No, rice does not change color while growing. The color of rice remains consistent throughout its growth cycle. Rice plants typically have green leaves during the growing stages, and as they mature, they produce rice grains that can vary in color depending on the variety." - AI computer Poe.

The result is a high quality image; done very well. Well done to the man.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Hockney cat sculpture created at art school in 1955 and given to a kind couple fetched £111,875 at auction

Sixty-eight years ago, David Hockney and his Bradford College of Art friend, Norman Stevens, were hitchhiking to London to visit exhibitions. It was raining and they were sheltering under the eaves of a house owned by Peter Richards and his wife alongside the A1 in Bedfordshire.

Mr Richards with the Hockney ceramic cat sculpture given to him by the artist for his kindness is providing shelter in the rain in 1955. Image: NationalWorld

The Richards felt bad for the guys and they invited them in to dry off and have a cup of tea. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon and their kindness was not forgotten by David Hockney.

He gave them a sculpture of a ceramic domestic cat which was modelled on Mr and Mrs Richards' cat, it is believed. Hockney sculpted the cat in 1955 while still at art school. It is one of six created at college.

It measures 34.5 cm x 40 cm x 15.5 cm. The sculpture comes with drawings and plans for the artwork together with letters and cards sent to the Richards by the artist over the years. A friendship had been created.

Apparently, Hockney has always been interested in cats and they feature in some of his major works.

The cat sculpture was auctioned on October 24. It shattered the previous record of £100,000 set by similar David Hockney sculpture in June 2023.

Hockney cat sculpture and accompanying paperwork. Image: NationalWorld.

Mark Stacey of Stacey's Auctioneers & Valuers said that the artwork had exceeded all expectations.

He added that, "This was a fantastic result for the vendor who was present in the room and was auctioning the Hockney items to benefit his grandchildren. The cat exceeded all expectations and £111,875 is a record for a Hockney ceramic cat, superseding the previous price achieved at Christie's in June of this year. There was both online and telephone bidding from bidders in the UK and globally with it finally being sold to an anonymous UK buyer."

Hockney is one of Britain's most celebrated artists. He is 86 years of age as at the date of this post and he smokes. He dislikes the 'persecution' of smokers in the UK!

He says that when he is creating art, he feels like he is 30 years old. He is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. He's a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. He has used the iPad and Polaroid to create art.

Richards sold the sculpture to raise funds to give to their grandchildren. He is now in his 90s and lives in Thorpe Bay, Essex.

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P.S. please forgive any typos. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Gustav Klimt's masterpiece is the most expensive artwork ever auctioned in Europe and his studio cats destroyed his drawings!

Gustav Klimt had about eight cats in his studio destroying his drawings. He was a cat lover. No question about it. The picture below is of Klimt and his cat 'Katz' - a German surname from the German word "Katze." meaning cat.

Klimt and Katz. Credits: Far Out / WikiArt / Picryl)

He did not like to paint himself and preferred to paint women. His studio was a complete mess according to art critic Arthur Roessler, who visited the artist's studio. He was surprised perhaps shocked at the conditions under which Klimt worked.

The description is of a pile of drawings and papers together with up to 10 meowing and purring cats, play-fighting with each other. Roessler was surprised to see the cats which spoiled "hundreds of the most beautiful drawings".

Gustav Klimt appeared to be unconcerned. When the art critic queried what he was doing in allowing the cats to damage his artwork, he said that it doesn't matter even if they crumple and tear the papers because urine "makes the best fixing agent!"

But the fact is that apparently urine had damaged the drawings. Perhaps Gustav Klimt had got used to the smell of it. Domestic cat urine does not make a fixing agent by the way.

Gustav Klimt is in the news not because of his love of cats and allowing his cats to rummage around his studio which appears to have been in a complete mess, but because his works are being fully appreciated by the buying public as a painting of his, Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) is the most expensive artwork ever auctioned in Europe at $108 million. That price includes the commission to the auctioneer which is known as the buyer's premium.

The actual hammer price was £74 million (US$94.35 million). It exceeded the presale estimate of £65 million by a big margin. The previous European auction record was US$104.3 million (£65 million)

Reason why Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Louis Wain 'the man who drew cats'

Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Louis Wain because he was an oddball and the actor wants society to accept oddballs. And perhaps he feels that Wain was treated unfairly as some believe that he did not suffer from schizophrenia. It may have been a misdiagnosis.

You may have heard that Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Louis Wain in a new film about this internationally recognised artist who anthropomorphised cats and who entertained millions. Wain suffered from schizophrenia and lived the last years of his life in a mental hospital near St Albans, Hertfordshire, which incidentally I visited as a photographer many years ago. No, I was not in the hospital as a patient! 

It has been developed and is now a housing estate as I understand it. At the time it was quite dour and inhospitable but there is an argument that there is a place for mental hospitals but nowadays they believe that it is better to assist people with mental health issues in the community. I don't know whether that has failed or not. Wain died at the hospital in 1939.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy in the Louis Wain film. Image: Album/Alamy.

But to get back to Louis Wain and Benedict Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch has said that people should be more sensitive to outsiders and oddballs in society. It seems that he has assessed Louis Wain as an oddball after studying him so that he could play him accurately. And if this is true, Cumberbatch is clearly a sensitive and decent person. I would certainly agree with his sentiments.

Society tends to reject outsiders. I think it goes back to an ancient tribal instinct. Anybody who is different is dangerous. If they are dangerous, they should be shunned. It's a rather crude mental process but that's my assessment. Although Louis Wain was very popular. H G Wells, observed that Louis Wain "invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world. English cats that do not look and live like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves."

The film about Louis Wain is called The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. I believe that it is to be released quite soon. I wonder if Cumberbatch decided to take part because he wanted to support outsiders.

Louis Wain was prolific artist. He had a strict upbringing in a Victorian family and has been described as a sickly child with a harelip. Dr. Desmond Morris says that his upbringing led him to become rebellious in later life which took the "form of a sentimental, infantile sense of humour". This led to his "cloyingly sweet pictures". But it was this that gave them their strength and attractiveness. Dr. Desmond Morris says that in his drawings he was able to "unleash his own, hitherto suppressed childhood".

Louis Wain designed the badge of the National Cat Club and he was invited to become its second President. He was probably the most famous feline Illustrator of all time.

Siamese Cat Art Prints

One of the best places to find Siamese cat art prints is on Amazon. Below is a slide show of art prints.



Siamese cats make natural subjects for art prints with their high contrast coats and friendly character. The products on display are for sale on the USA market.

See Siamese Cats discussion. And Painting a Siamese Cat.