Vaishali Vijaykumar By Express News Service CHENNAI: A cat tilts its head towards the left and intently stares at me with curiosity. As I scroll down artist Ganapathy Subramaniam’s Instagram page, I find around 80 such cats in different postures, colours and expressions looking at me. The city-based artist has used his two pet cats as his muse for his art project that began three years ago. “If you’re a pet lover, then the moment you see a cat, it reminds you of a cat you either have now or owned in the past. It recreates that particular character in the mind of a viewer. I intend to kindle that feeling with my artworks. I owned two cats and both were called Snowy. I recently gave them up for adoption. Every memory and gesture of them has inspired me to document them in the form of paintings,” says Ganapathy, who has also extensively studied cats’ behaviour and their body movements over the years. Feline fascination He can go on for hours talking about cats, without a pause. “Cats are extremely alert although they appear to be lazy on the surface. Even while sleeping, there’s a small slit in the eye that keeps it awake and aware. When I go to fetch the milk packet, it runs around and follows me. Suddenly if it finds something moving on the wall, it will go and pursue that. There’s no plan that it follows. Its ability to exist at the moment interests me,” he shares. Flexibility, agility and swift moments — these are a few traits in a cat that amuses Ganapathy. “The physicality is such that it produces infinite actions. One time it looks thin. The other time it looks well-rounded. The movements are based on instincts. It expands when it wants to intimidate. It shrinks when it wants to be subordinate or obedient. The body dynamics make it challenging while sketching it. Body features such as tail, ears and whiskers are crucial since they move based on instincts,” says the artist, who tries to capture even the minute moves, jumps, gesture or pose to see what it’s trying to convey. He aims to reproduce the essence of its action and not the exact copy of a cat. ‘Pet’ project Ganapathy enjoys experimenting with different mediums where he can be more spontaneous. Although watercolour is his strength, he also uses ink and acrylic. He uses rice paper as the base for painting. “Rice papers are extracted from different trees that grow in East Asian countries. What makes it interesting is, in any other base, depending on how much water you add in paint, it spreads on the paper. Whereas in this, it spreads even without water. You cannot go back if you make a mistake and correct it. High concentration and patience are required. It’s a meditative experience and we need to be in sync with the painting,” explains Ganapathy. The size of a cat’s brain is hardly five cm. But Ganapathy believes that human beings have more to learn from the animal. “The way a cat looks at its caretaker is interesting. It doesn’t distinguish between species but sees all as one. From a societal view, we exist based on dichotomy. We form boundaries and groups on a different basis. People sometimes get carried away from a false sense of identity. That isn’t the case with cats. Once it gets comfortable with you, its trust levels spike and the body language relaxes to become friendly. They’re not as expressive as dogs, but have other ways of exhibiting their comfort,” shares Ganapathy who’s been writing and painting for the past three years. He published a book called Oviyam, Thedalgal, Puridhalgal (2019) in Tamil on the ‘grammar of art’. His other interests include temple architecture, culture and sculpture. He’s working on another book on arts and hopes to launch it with an exclusive exhibition on cats.For details, visit Instagram: Ganapathy Subramaniam

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