In which we talk a little about Louis Wain!

"INTELLIGENCE IN THE CAT IS UNDERRATED"

-WAIN, Louis

Hello everyone and happy Wednesday!!! How are you?? How are things going? Hope your day was -and is-being nice, wish you the best, as I always do!

As for me, today was a nice day I think! College was fine, I talked to nice friends, listened to some music, finished some sketches, FINALLY FINISHED READING THE KISSING BOOTH (lovely book btw, recommended) and so on! The day was hot, really hot, unfortunately, but apart from that I think I survived just fine! Today I just wanted to share with you guys an artist that I love and been appreciating since 2012! Louis Wain!

Here's the guy BTW, say hello!

His work comes and goes in my life, but he is quite an influence in me, and in my sketches too! This personality born in the 1860 victorian England got famous for portraying one of my favorite animals: cats! He didn't start that way though, he only got really into drawing them when his beloved wife Emily Richardson got ill, breast cancer. She had pet she loved a lot: her cat Peter, who made her really happy. To amuse her wife in such a hard condition, Louis would draw extensive sketches of Peter. Her wife adored them, and was always supporting him to sell the drawings and keep going. Unfortunately she died, but Louis kept going inspite of his sadness and anxieties. As the years went by he became widely popular and celebrated in both his native England and also in America, his lovely kittens were popular and very much loved by the public. In contrast, the romantic, melancholic and naive Louis never had an eye for business, and was always having financial issues. But inspite the bad things he had to endure, things got worse when his mental health started to fade, and he developed a mental condition to this day no one knows quite sure what. Some say it was Schizophrenia, others say Asperger's Syndrome. 

But inspite of the bad moments, his last years were peaceful, he went to a comfortable mental institution and never stopped drawing and amusing people. Some say as the years went by with him having his condition his drawings became more and more abstract, as the illness could be detected on his work. Unfortunately it's hard to say, since in the end he never stopped doing his regular sketches anyway, so was his illness expressing herself, or was just he trying new styles? It's likely we'll never know for sure, what we know is his work is lovely, bright and a deserved homage to our feline friends! Louis was quite fond of them, he helped to popularize cats in Britain, donated to animal's charities and helped to better the condition of those creatures. Okay, I'm boring you with my chattiness towards his life, let's see some of his work!!! 

As the years went by, some of his work became more bright and abstract, though we don't know why

As I said, I love him and his work, he is an inspiration in my life! When I was having painting classes back in 2015 I even reproduced some of his work on canvas using oil! Let me show the reproductions!

This is actually my first painting ever, finished it back in March 2015, I love having a little of Louis Wain with me, and I love cats

Wow, I think by far this was one of my biggest posts ever! I'm really sorry for the lengh of it, I don't blame you if you just saw this and thought "what the what? What was the author thinking?! I'm not reading this!!". Well... but if you're still here, you're the very best, always so glad to be sharing this content with you! And for closing this post, let's finish with one of my favorite drawings by him! See you next time, have a nice night!!!