Common Garden Rat - original upcycled vintage art

“Well, hello, Peter.” —Professor Lupin

That moment in HP when you realize that Ron’s old tatty rat was actually an old tatty man pretending to be his pet… EW! 

With this alteration, I wanted to capture the process an animagus goes through to transform into another creature. Bones break, hair changes, teeth grow, cartilage stretches… it’s a gruesome process! 

I painted it starting from the human form, and then painted right over top of each stage to gradually morph it into the tatty rat who spent twelve years hiding in plain sight in the Weasley household as their pet. 

It was a bit disturbing to paint this way, but I did so to film it so you can watch him transform in this reel. Let me know what you think! My kids all said “ew!” 

Now the painting is complete, as a portrait of a common garden rat. But you now know who he really is! 

The original portrait print of Beethoven may or may not have been cut out of a book! (I also used other old portraits from the same book of Beethoven as the bases for my transformation paintings featuring the four friends, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs) 

Magical Map : To tie the series together of the portraits of the four schoolfriends, I used their magical map as backing on each of the framed paintings. The map connects when you put them all together. You might be able to spot me walking around the halls as well! 

"Common Garden Rat"
altered painting by Heather Castles

24.5 x 27 cm (10.5 x 9.75 inch) painting on vintage print
34.5 x 37.5 cm (13.75 x 14.75 inch) restored antique frame
Black matte, non-glare glass.