Dressed Up Rat

After living in Asia for so long, when I paint clothes on my animals they are usually wearing Chinese, Japanese or Korean robes, kimonos, dresses and jackets.

'Rat Warrior'

I found a great catalogue about Korean national costumes – hanbok– and it helps give an idea where I was coming from when I painted this rat. I don’t copy pictures of clothes, I just paint from memory, so it’s interesting to see what I have internalized.

This is a photograph from the catalogue of a dopo – a type of traditional Korean overcoat.

Traditional Korean overcoat