Monsieur Rat, the art cupboard artist….Latest needle felted commission!

May I introduce you to Monsieur Rat, my latest whimsical needle felted commission that I might have gone a little too far on his accessories!

I was asked to create a rat for the client who wanted a unique gift for her colleague who was leaving as head of the art department at the school she worked. There’s a story behind why this little rat is so special, he would break in to their art cupboard at the school and scurry away, nibble at and make quite a mess with the art materials.

I loved this story, I imagined a whole story of his life becoming a famous artist living in a Parisian underground metropolis…. that then led me to take take it a little further and have some fun with his clothes … I absolutely loved the Disney film Ratatouille and I think you can say it may have been a bit of an influence.

Even before finishing his facial details I couldn't help myself but get started on his artists smock…. I used these images of a french style smock as reference using some old canvas material I had in my stash, I think I got pretty close!

Then of course he had to have a beret and an artists pallet…… with ‘paint’….

…. I decided to send him off with one of my old paintbrush that I owned seeing as he would have probably stolen one from their art cupboard; I wonder what his style of painting was and which great artists he compared himself with!

…I like to imagine Monsieur Rat is heavily influenced by Paul Cézanne and paints large canvases of contemporary life in the underground sewers world of Paris……

…ahhh c’est la vie!