Catmasutra II - Cat's Sutra

Cat's sutra – a life state -; Felt good to do a bigger piece like this where I can apply the broader strokes more freely, a freeform signature almost. Completed this piece in Dec 2006 where if you remember, it rained like crazy.

Hmm… I have always been fascinated by the rain, probably because I used to watch the rain together with my cat in the yard. It’s an old terrace house in Serangoon Gardens that my grandmother and father bought, with a covered but open-air kitchen. This led out to the yard where we had a two-seater swing and bamboo poles to hang out the laundry. My dad once dug out a small garden, and planted papaya trees, but closed it up soon after. “Man builds, man destroys” Haha – a quote from my dad. When the rain came pelting down, we would either play in the rain, drop paper boats into the longang (monsoon drain), or stay indoors; If I was lucky, my cat would be in the kitchen yard as well, watching the rain.

There’s an ethereal quality about the raining, the chief chef’s secret ingredients all thrown into the pot – a bittersweet assortment of foreboding, redemption, and contentment. It’s raining again today as it was. I was experimenting with the natural flow of water in this painting, to re-create the effect of rain in the background. Amidst the storm, the cat remains sheltered looking at the world with its wide grin. I painted the background first, dripped diluted white paint down the canvas and watched the raining ;). This is the third Buddha painting I did for the Catmasutra series, with the previous two done in Catmasutra 2005. I can't help but feel a connection between the way a cat "meditates" (when it's just sitting there comfortably... surveying what goes on) and the statuesque presence of Buddha. Perhaps it's the moment of "be" where everything is what it is supposed to be - there at that precise moment…