Live Cat Portraits at Chic Cats Book Launch, Maison Assouline
In March last year, I was invited to paint live dog portraits at a book launch at Maison Assouline, Piccadilly, London so I was delighted to be invited back to their beautiful store this year, to illustrate cat portraits for the Chic Cats launch event.
The book ‘Chic Cats celebrates the world's continuing fascination with cats and the ways in which these feline companions have influenced art, fashion, film and design. It contains artwork by many famous artists including David Hockney, Andy Warhol and Richard Avedon and it is designed to complement the book ‘Chic Dogs’. A perfect book for cat lovers and art and design enthusiastics everywhere.
It was so exciting to be part of this in store activation event and get the opportunity to create custom illustrated pet portraits for cat lovers and their furry feline friends.
The building itself is beautiful, full of history and steeped in culture - and to be surrounded by the beautiful books and luxury gifts while I was illustrating was quite special.
The set up was similar to last time, so when customers purchased a copy of ‘Chic cats’, they received a hand drawn custom pet portrait on branded Assouline paper and to finish off, each portrait came with a beautiful gold charm and was securely sealed inside a beautifully illustrated envelope. It was a beautiful gift for customers to take home.
It was a really busy day and although I didn’t get to meet any cats in real life, customers shared their cat photos with me so I could capture their unique characters in the pet portraits.
This time round instead of using watercolour, I used marker pens, pencils and fineliner pens. The portraits were quick and full of energy and I found these materials were the best for capturing that.
Maison Assouline
Visitors to Maison Assouline can enjoy beautiful and rare works of art while browsing a range of luxury publications and gifts. The brand Assouline is where culture meets luxury. They create a range of exceptionally crafted books, home fragrances and objets d’art which are sold at their boutiques and in stores around the world.
Customers at the Picadilly store can also enjoy the Swans bar where you can enjoy a coffee or cocktail. This makes the customer experience even more unique and luxurious.
Live Ilustration And Live Events
Live illustration brings a unique twist to a brand launch that photos often can’t. My favourite thing about it is that you are turning the launch into an experience and your guests are part of something that is being created in real time. I often have guests watching me create live illustrations and it encourages your visitors to pause and stay longer which is always a good thing.
In this case, customers took a beautiful bespoke illustration gift home with them and guests are more likely to keep this as it is special to them. From a brand perspective, a live illustration event naturally creates eye-catching content for social media. It means your audience is more likely to share with friends and like minded people and this is a great way to get your brand out to a bigger audience.
If you love the idea of live illustration and you have an event coming up that you think live illustration would be perfect for, please get in touch : hello@helenridley.com
Here are examples of the cat portraits from the day. Which one is your favourite?
