Ink kittens, Anita Wong’s new painting series

Ink kittens is a collection of cat paintings from Asian American artist Anita Yan Wong, the creation process of ink kitten is very similar to Chinese calligraphy – which requires practice and training perfecting the brush strokes.

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Each kitten takes roughly 10 – 15 mins from start to finish with no pencil sketch nor eraser.

I have always included big cats in my works but I have seriously started incorporated house cats into my art creation during 2018 when I met the neighborhood cat “Tux”. He appeared one day during my walk and started taking a walk with me every day. I am inspired by Tux every time I see him – his cool black shiny coat and his moves inspired my ink painting series – “Jumping kittens” and it later evolved into my current ink painting series– “ink kittens”. I use only black sum-e ink and two calligraphy brushes to paint my black furry friend – Tux. I feel a cat brings energy into my projects, movement into my brush works and calmness into my life.

I can only begin a project when I feel completely inspired by the subject and currently the only subject that interests me is Cats. I often begin my cat painting with research – snapping photos of cats I’ve encountered, browsing online/offline materials and visit local adoption events during the weekend.

The process of creation is very fast for me, I don’t outline nor sketch, the process of painting is similar to writing calligraphy to me, it usually takes sometimes between 10- 15 mins per painting. I take a break when I don’t see the results, the break is extremely helpful to me. I can’t ever force myself into painting, having feelings for the subject and picturing the piece of art in my mind before painting is very important to me in the creation process.

I’m currently working on upcoming my solo art show in San Ramon California this June 2020. I want to display at least 40 – 50 house cat paintings in the show.