The Wild One

by Daniel Mackie May 04, 2012

Wild Pussy Cat

“O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love, What a beautiful Pussy you are, You are…”From Edward Lear’s famous Limerick “The Owl and the Pussy-cat”. It is said that the cat in the Limerick was based on Lear’s cat. Not sure about the Owl, Maybe he had a pet owl as well. who knows! We are engaged by stories that give animals human qualities. The owl and the pussy cat have a romance and get married, by a Turkey, no less. On a “land where the Bong-tree grows”! Owls and cats would obviously do no such thing. But we find that charming.

I think there is something else that attracts us to cats. Their indifference perhaps? Rudyard Kipling hit the nail on the head in his just so story, “The cat that walked by himself”. Of all the domesticated animals the cat has remained wild. Maybe we like their aloof nature, their inherent wildness.

This watercolour was a Battle! Technically I wanted to get a simple shape, kind of in keeping with how children draw cats. round head, round body, and stick legs. The head was the struggle! I kept doing and re-doing the shape, I knew it needed to be heart-shaped, but finally when i re-did the muzzle it all slotted into place! You can see an eairler version of the painting here

Image © Daniel Mackie

View All the cats at The DM Collection

Daniel Mackie

Author

Comments will be approved before showing up.

Also in News / Work in progress / Mythology

Nine Hoots for Luck- Owl

by Harry Miller April 30, 2020

With the exception of artists, inventors, and teenagers - we humans are diurnal daytime creatures on the whole, and although it’s one thing to be out and about during the night in a street lit urban environment, it’s a very different scenario if you find yourself in, say… oh, I don’t know, a forest per se. Where, if you’re lucky, you may hear the unmistakable cry or hoot of an Owl: natures very own nocturne, a stark reminder of the unknown peril of night, and a creature that has featured heavily in myth and folklore throughout the ages.

A Polar Bear's Tail

by Harry Miller April 22, 2020

Weighing up to as much as 800 kg - that’s roughly the same as 10 men - a male boar Polar Bear is the largest *hypercarnivorous land mammal on the planet. In fact the largest specimen ever recorded was an Alaskan bear back in 1960, which weighed in at an astonishing 1,002 kg, and had a length of just over 11ft. Now that’s a big bear!

Whale in East Yorkshire

by Daniel Mackie April 21, 2020

A fabulous drawing by Edward Brown from East Yorkshire. I love the fact that the whales tail is out of the water about to make big splash! Excellent coloured pencil work, a medium i means to try myself at some point. Nice work Edward!

Follow