Japanese Woodblock Print, 2019, numbered 33/100, signed in sumi ink at upper left, Bin-ni, followed by red circular artist's seal, BINNIE, titled, and signed in pencil on the bottom margin, NEMESIS

SIZE IN INCHES: 15 x 13.5 inches

COMMENTS: The cat belongs to a friend of the artist in San Francisco that has a habit of crouching on his chest when he visited there. The design originated as a drawing, which he then decided to make as a print partly in response to a request from the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida, to produce a print for them on commission in conjunction with an upcoming exhibition on Japanese woodblock printing (which will be released in due course). Binnie took the original drawing and slightly enlarged it for this design, Nemesis, and he reduced it radically for two other versions, Little Grey Cat and Little Black & White Cat. Only the Nemesis version has the ball of yarn, printed slightly gomazuri (sesame seed printing) and the background is printed in a combination of gomazuri and zokinzuri (rag-printing) where the pigment is applied to the block with an ink-soaked rag rather than with a brush. The upper right and lower left corners were also printed using baren-bokashi, where by applying no pressure to the corners with the baren the color fades out to nothing.

PAUL BINNIE (born 27 May 1967) is a Scottish artist working in the Japanese tradition of woodblock printing. His work is reflective of the shin-hanga artists of the early to mid-20th century, employing subjects such as landscapes, tattoos, and bijin.

Fine, no flaws