Oliver The Cheshire Cat (Bringing a Little Smile to Everyone’s Face)

Thankfully, I’ve survived storm Ophelia, with only minor injuries and still have a roof over my head. (I was sent out to secure the wheelie-bins and the blue recycle bin, blew over on top of me. Now, my ribs hurt). Unfortunately, we’ve now been told storm Brian will hit us on Saturday.

Two storms in one week, the weather is truly fringed. Ireland usually doesn’t get hit by storms, but if Ophelia was anything to go by. We’ll all acted not too bothered, until the news replaces the word storm with hurricane. Then we’ll all start acting like, it’s the zombie apocalypse. Which was actually kind of funny. People were rushing out to buy a month’s supply of bottle water and a life-time supply of candles. You would swear the storm was going to last weeks, not just a day. But in their defence, housing isn’t built to be hurricane proof here and we usually don’t have cellars/basements. So, if an actual hurricane hit we’d all be screwed and quite possibly homeless afterwards (if not dead).

Swapping the word storm with hurricane, put the fear of god in people and caused a bit of panic. So, to ease the tension and bring a little smile to everyone’s face. I thought I’d share, something I painted/drew that always brings a smile to me face and spread that smiley feeling. As always, I’ll share my process, but this time in reverses because I’m in an awkward mood today.

Alice in wonderland is one of my favourite books. I absolutely love the way it uses words. It makes characters appear to be talking nonsense. However, pay attention to the words they speak and I’ll find they’re actually making perfect sense and occasionally have a stab and showing how mad and crazy certain aspects of society actually are. But enough of my deep analysis of the book and back to the painting.

The Cheshire Cat is one of my favourite characters and as the book suggests, there is more than one Cheshire Cat in wonderland. I thought for my own amusement, I’d create my own Cheshire Cat and give him a proper name. Oliver the Cheshire Cat, turned out a lot better than I thought, so now I’m sharing him and spreading the amusement.

To be honest, Oliver looked possessed when I first drew him and was quite unnerving. But thankfully, when I finally painted in his eyes, he looked a bit more smiley and less soul devouring.

I hope Oliver has brought a smile to your face and brightened your evening. Hopefully storm Brian won’t be as bad as Ophelia and I’ll make it through it, without my house re-enacting the scene from The Wizard of Oz or being floored by anymore wheelie-bins.