Old book, new book.

 Title page for I am Cat, with dedication.

Tentative cover idea for East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

Back to work.

I have not painted for almost 4 weeks now, but have worked and worked and worked until I felt ragged. Today I cleared the things away that barricade me from my brushes and found solace in my 'real' work. New title page for 'I am Cat' which had fun at Frankfurt and has lots of interest, from France, Holland, Denmark and other far off cat loving lands.
Good to be painting again. 

Almost finished.

The painting of the puma has been leaning against the wall in my studio for a while. I was going to scrap it. Then a family came in to wander around and look at things and the father said something about the painting. Out of all of the things that were there. It pulled me up, made me look again, and so now 'I am Cat' is almost finished.

Meanwhile while at Art in Action I got together with Catherine Hyde, Hannah Willow and Tamsin Abbott. There was much laughter, but also a plan. So now we have the beginnings of a small group. We will exhibit together, at least once a year we hope. In the meantime you can wander through our studios and see our work on facebook at The Sisterhood of Ruralists.

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Too long

My list grew and grew until it became too big....
1. Hang washing out
2. Draw cat for cover ( still thinking about this one, as it is a tricky balance)
3. Draw wild cat
4. Hang more paintings on the walls ( the house is an obstacle course of huge drawings and paintings in frames waiting to go to Oriel y Parc in October)

Meanwhile I have work on display at Theatr Gwaun in Fishguard, in the theatre foyer.

5. Text Sophie and drop off the last of the calendars.
6. Stretch paper.
7. Put away the logs.
8. Sweep away the dust and the dirt from the studio floor and think about finishing painting the walls.
9. Send more images to Jane for the book.
10. Finish the Dream of Six Kingfishers and put together film.

Meanwhile the endpapers are now done for I am Cat and only two and a bit spreads to go. Soon I will be moving on to East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

Aprox. 2 and 3 hours, with thinking time between.

Then 4,5 and 6.......

and finally, 7 or maybe 8 hours later.....

Almost finished, still wet.

People often ask me how long it takes to do a painting. This one took about an hour or two drawing as well, and then there was the rough, which I did whilst watching A Knight's Tale with Heath Ledger and the lion came out looking rather like Heath Ledger, which was strange.

So in this case I would say that it took about 10 hours, and 45 years ( as it has beneath and behind it the experience and learning of a lifetime of drawing and painting. 

After an hour of painting.

The spring and the water photos will be explained later. For now I have to post things and hang up washing before stroking the lion again.

 

Love at first site

It began some years ago. And it was love at first site. 

To be fair it can be said that unlike with some affairs the passion only grew, from the first days of the orange clam shell to the macbook to the iMac. 

And then she met the iPad. So slim, so seductive and offering such magic.

But very soon things began to fall apart. Years of living on a dial up connection meant that updates had been impossible. The iMac was old, sad, tired. The iPad wouldn't connect as iTunes was an antique and she railed against the foolishness of this, one purchase too far. It say there on the shelf, beautiful but useless. Until Julia came to her aid.

It seemed that all that was needed was to replace the tiger with a snow leopard ( the irony of this was not lost on her).

Everything was backed up in case of emergencies, the snowleopard was purchased and with fear in the heart, despite the gentle encouragement of Julia at Apple.com, she installed the snow leopard.

And now the iPad worked and the iMac was like a new creature. It was as if a caterpillar had woven a chrysalis and then hours later emerged as a beautiful butterfly. The iPad came to life in her hands and love blossomed.

And in between times the painting of mountain lions for I am Cat progressed.

 

 

Lynx

Studio, Thursday.

On my desk today, cats and owls.

Yesterday I took Pixie to the vet. She is the star of my book, I am Cat, that I am working on. Her face will be on the cover. She told me what to write and the cat curl dreaming is ammonite Pixie. But, she has been ill off and on for a few years now. She has colds that she can't shake and no amount of anti-biotics seems to shift it. For a while I stopped treating her, but yesterday took her again to the vets. Such a sorry state she was in, it did not seem fair. And she is such a dear and beautiful small creature.

By the time I got to the vets she was not only crusted with snot but had been sick in the cat basket. She hates cars. Moira was unsure what we could do next but decided to just throw everything at her.Nothing to loose. Pixie couldn't go on like this. 

So, I came home with the prospect of having to work on a book built around the memory of yet another dear, beautiful dead cat.

At this moment though Pixie is in my studio, curled on my knee. I have not heard her sneeze once today yet. She does not smell. She is not completely clear with her breathing, but so much better.

And I have hope.

I want I am Cat to be a celebration of her, and her brother, Maurice ( I miss him so much it hurts) and not a memorial to them.

I am Cat, progress.

First and second spreads of 'I am Cat', to be published next autumn by Frances Lincoln. When thinking of books I think of the turn of the page, where the spine is, a balance for words and much more. And before the painting of the sleeping cat there is the cover, the end paper, the title page. The words for both spreads read....

I am Cat. At night I prowl, but in the day I sleep, curled in warm places, ammonite tight. And when I sleep I dream. 

I dream that I roam deep in the jungle, bright flame cat of the forest, striped like light, like shadow, sun scorched.

 

 

In the garden, in the studio...

radishes and tigers.

 

Creeping up on a tiger

Walking in search of the golden dancing iris at the airfield. There were ponies and foals and butterflies and orchids, skylark and linnets and the constant song of a calling cuckoo.

Back home. I have been illustrating now for almost 30 years and still I find the tyranny of the white page a strange torture. I have stalked toward this tiger for about three weeks, creeping up, hiding behind paintings of foxes, wolves, trying to catch the tiger while it was unaware . Now the piece is started, so the page is no longer blank, white, waiting. And now I just think, ah well, there's still time to spoil it.

So what is it about this process that I enjoy?

And what is behind the tiger that I am still stalking?

Cats

On the cliffs the thrift is beginning to blossom. Sea campion and squill also. 
Back home the Amur leopard is almost finished.

 

A short leopard story

 Travel can be unsettling. A few days in Paris, a weekend in Derbyshire. All well and good but each time I seem to get into the swing of walking and working I flit off again and then have to settle. Add to this the fact that I am almost 50 and increasingly menopausal and some days painting doesn't go as it should! 
Take one leopard. So far through this painting and frustration with how it went was crippling my fingers and judgement to screaming point! Not quite bad enough to 'know' for sure it wasn't right and not good enough to go on with.
Sometimes when this happens I take a photo and look at the piece of a screen, or sneak off and then sneak up to it when it isn't looking. Is it me, or is it really not working? When does self doubt kick in and when am I just being to self critical, given that I would if time allowed rip everything up and paint it 20 times?
This time I put my rubbish painting on facebook and got back the very best and most precise crit that I have ever had for a piece of work, that was just so incisively 'right on the button' that I want to quote it here. Made me laugh so much! Many thanks Debra Morse, you star. Here is what she said:

'You know I think this piece is perfect as it is. It's obvious the leopard and swallow have had a bitchy fight. 'Eff you' is all over each of their faces. The piece is unfinished. The irritation is palpable. Even the tree is heaving a sigh.... the other swallow fled so abruptly as to leave a hole in the sky. You have captured the frustrated menopausal fatigue brilliantly. I say label it accordingly, and start a collection of raw bits of emotion captured in colors.'

So, having skirted around the piece all afternoon and tried and tried to redraw I returned to the original text and the original leopard, not an African leopard but an Amur leopard, rarest of all. Only 40 now are known to man in the wild. It could be that there are a few more, but only a handful. Wild leopard of heat and snow the Amur's coat changes in length from 2-7cms from summer to winter. By the time this book is published there may be none left in the wild forests where Russia borders China. Logging, farming, hunting, all have taken their toll.

Painting all day, having begun in the evening yesterday and she is a much more noble creature. 

Progress

Yesterday I learnt how to blow a sheepdog whistle.
Today I painted a small cheetah and a small snowleopard for the 'I am Cat' book.
Small progress, but better than none.

Inside out 3

Outside clouds kissing hills, pearl gray light, white blackthorn blossom, jackdaw caw and magpie chatter and raven cronk, the wind building. Chiff chaffing in the bushes.

Inside, hot plains, ostriches, cheetahs.

Almost finished, not quite. Just letting it settle with the cat and the moon.

The moon, a dragon, my desk

A while back a friend from afar asked if I would do a drawing for her to be turned into a tattoo. Now she wears a dragon tattoo and it looks beautiful. Such a strange connection to have with another person, having them as a canvas. Eve's dragon holds a moon and a small star.

Leopard and a beautiful thing that is secret.

Waiting to see if the snowleopard page is finished, or just almost finished. Needs to be prowled around for a while.

In the meantime I have a secret or two. Below are some images for one which will take shape over the next few weeks. Something beautiful.