Oil on canvas, stretched and ready to hang.

Signed certificate of authenticity.

'Sitting Pretty' is the an imaginative realism piece in a new series by professional, gallery represented Perth artist Mia Laing. This painting took over 6 weeks to create and is on premium canvas on a professionally made stretcher. Varnished for protection against the elements, it is ready to hang straight from the box, or framing can be arranged.

Mia started this series coincidentally in the year that travel has become harder to accomplish. Mia had plans for this series in 2019, but with the onset of the crazy year we call 2020, she was able to fully focus on bringing these imaginative pieces into fruition.

One of Mia's Perth based brick and mortar galleries has snapped up all these imaginative realism pieces as Mia has created them, but 'Sitting Pretty' has been held specifically for BT and the Bluethumb art prize.

Imaginative realism is a genre that is finding strength in todays competitive and collectable art market. It has affiliation with illustration, but stands alone as a fully formed genre of larger scale artworks that include aspects of illustration, narrative art, conceptualism, symbolism, surrealism and traditional still-life painting.

Mia starts with a concept, in this case it was the suitcases and forms and imagines the scene from there, creating a painting purely from her imagination. The use of an idiom for the title, adds to the narrative of the painting.
Spend some time allowing your eyes to wander this painting...all the nuance of a typical tropical holiday are there, but with a lot more creativity and humour than a traditional still-life oil painting. Many of the forms in this painting are either symbolic, have idioms or cliches in the English language, or are purely decorative.
Depending on each viewers lived experience, each viewer will read a different story in this art...
Are you currently weathering a storm, or seeing that each storm has a silver lining?
You may feel the suitcases are sunk and all is lost at sea, or you may see that they have created the perfect sitting pretty perch for the cheeky cockatoo, complete with a good book and a mocktail! The book, butterfly, shell, flowers, fruit and compass have all been used for millennia as symbolism in art.

This painting was painted to bring joy...no matter whether it is 2020 or many, many years into the future. I hope the collector of this piece will hang it where family and friends will stop, spend time in contemplation and be ready to have a great conversation about the personal story they read in it. A reminder of the year that got crazy, but a narrative not necessarily about this year. Family friendly art and a beautiful piece for any home or business.