Mr. Bon Vivant - Original

The painting is a playful homage to Wayne Thiebaud, whose delicious use of color Iris has long admired. Thiebaud famously painted cakes and confections, but here his chromatic sensibility finds a less conventional subject: a white cat basking in the sun. His fur is constructed from thick, deliberate strokes of ivory, peach, lavender, and pale blue, with unexpected flashes of electric color along his silhouette. The oil paint is extravagantly substantial, each fingertip impression left intact, giving the entire surface the irresistible texture of buttercream frosting. Iris has always loved studying other painters by borrowing a little of their visual logic and seeing what happens when it meets her own. In this case, the experiment has produced a cat who looks almost good enough to eat, though he would certainly object to the suggestion.