Kitchens and Cats

Guest post by Karin Schliehe Mark, from Reutlingen, Germany and Rivert, Spain

I am a children’s book illustrator. I love this profession because it gives me the possibility to tell stories with pictures. I like the details in a picture because they are the important parts, the parts that can surprise you. I also love to make sketches everywhere I am. Cats and people are one of my main themes. I want my sketches to tell daily stories. I want the viewer to go into the picture.

My friend Silvia has a wonderful and colourful kitchen in Reutlingen/ Gmindersdorf. She is living there in an old workers’ settlement.

My cat Tommi is very dominant. He always does what he wants. For example, here you can see him sitting on the countertop before he jumps onto the fridge.

I spend a lot of the year in Rivert, a beautiful and historical place in the Spanish Pyrenees.

A friend of mine has an old farmhouse. Cats, dogs and people can live there much more freely than in the cities of Germany.

Mio is a good natured cat and my friend Silvia makes him do his gymnastic exercises. I like to colour my quick sketches with aquarell, so I can give some parts of the picture more dominance.

For me a kitchen is the most friendly and busy room of a house. With a cat or a dog, the atmosphere is perfect. Here is a sketch of the kitchen of Casa Mestre. The cat, who normally lives at a neighbor’s house, is now sitting on our table.

Karin Schliehe Mark is a children’s book illustrator and lives in Reutlingen, Germany. You can see more of her work here on flickr.