Familiars of Fortune - Lucky Cat 1 🔴 SOLD

Oil, acrylic , gesso and gold leaf on wooden icon panel from the Ukraine, 25x30x3cm. Comes with a signed palette used to create the piece and a bell that’s in the painting which will come in a Japanese red envelope used for giving money/gifts, it’s called a pochibukuro (ポチ袋).
Familiars of Fortune takes the familiar Maneki-neko, the Japanese beckoning cat, and returns it to the strange, almost supernatural story at the heart of its symbolism.
At the centre is a cat based on my cat Blubs, transformed into a living lucky talisman. Her raised paw echoes the traditional beckoning gesture of the Maneki-neko, inviting fortune and opportunity towards its owner, while the plaque she holds reads 招財進寶 (zhāo cái jìn bǎo) which is an auspicious Chinese phrase meaning roughly “welcome wealth and bring in treasure.” The 福 at his throat represents good fortune, blessing and happiness, while the small bell traditionally carries associations of protection and the warding away of misfortune.But luck in this painting has a darker edge.
Behind Blubs, a storm gathers and lightning strikes beneath an otherwise golden sky, referencing the famous legend associated with the origins of the Maneki-neko. A samurai lord, commonly identified as Ii Naotaka, was said to have been sheltering beneath a tree during a storm when a cat appeared to beckon him towards a nearby temple. He followed …and moments later lightning struck the place he had just left! The cat’s gesture had seemingly saved his life.
The painting divides almost into two worlds: gold leaf, blossom and light on one side; storm, darkness and lightning on the other. The blossom suggests renewal, beauty and the fleeting nature of life, while the circular forms surrounding Blubs create a halo, elevating an ordinary domestic animal into something closer to a guardian or familiar. That duality is at the heart of Familiars of Fortune. Luck isn’t always the wonderful thing that happens to us. Sometimes it’s the terrible thing that almost did.