LINEN TRAY S - Living with Cats -

Ordinary days with a cat, painted onto linen. Living with Cats, by the painter Misato Ogihara A cat curled up on a chair. A cat settled into a box, watching the street. A home to come back to, a warm light left on, and a small creature nearby. This series prints watercolors by the painter Misato Ogihara onto fog linen work's linen, painted around the theme of living with cats. What she paints is never a special occasion - only an ordinary day. Which is exactly why it starts to look like your own. Linen Tray S - Living with Cats fog linen work's standard tray: linen fabric finished with a resin coating. The coating is applied here in Japan, and the weave of the cloth stays visible through it, which is what gives the surface its soft look. It shrugs off water and marks, and a quick wipe is all it takes. A place to put your rings and keys, a coffee and a square of chocolate, your cat's collar or a few treats. By the front door, on a desk, beside the bed - the size does not ask for a particular spot. What is painted on it are fragments of a day: a chair, a bag, a pair of slippers. Nothing remarkable on its own, but together they raise the air of a whole room. Misato Ogihara Painter and illustrator. After studying design at Tama Art University, she worked in stage design, painting backdrops for opera and ballet. Today she works across book covers, advertising and packaging, moving between studios in Tokyo and Yamanashi. If you have ever picked up a translated novel in a bookshop because the cover drew you in, there is a fair chance it was one of hers. She has lived with cats since childhood, and with birds, goats and dogs along the way. Put a living creature into a scene, she says, and warmth appears in it. Cats, dogs, birds and people stand quietly in her paintings. Some of the cats in this series were drawn from cats she knows. About fog linen work A Tokyo brand based in Shimokitazawa, making linen goods around the idea of everyday use. Every color, pattern and design is their own, and the linen is woven and sewn at a partner factory in Lithuania. Linen is one of the toughest of the natural fibers, and one of the most absorbent and quickest to dry. Use it every day, put it through the machine, hang it out in the sun. It only gets better the more you wash it. Nothing about it is loud, and yet a room settles slightly with one in it. It sits naturally alongside the quiet, well-made things &CAT looks for.