The Cat House - but not in the rude sense!

[Mike A]

There's a 16th century cottage, near the church in my village, called the Cat House, and here's how it got its name... In the 1880s, the occupant was an eccentric man called Bob Ward, who owned a canary. A churchman called Canon Woodard lived in a house nearby, and the Canon owned a cat. One day the Canon's cat got into Bob Ward's cottage and either killed his canary or (more likely) frightened it to death. Bob W was so angry, he decorated his cottage with metal plaques of a cat and a canary. He attached strings to a post, and hung shells, bones and metal bits from the string - which he pulled whenever the Canon passed by on his way to church. So the cottage became the Cat House, and is known as that to this day.

The path running up left past the cottage leads to the churchyard.

The painting was done using mainly ink, with some pastel and airbrush overlays - and a useful bit of pebbling from the Stickies tool. The thatched roof was made with thousands of individual dots on a grey background.

Cheers,

Mike

[D Akey]

Your style works very well here at the cat house.

[Caesar]

I like very much the sense of light this painting, in its apparent simplicity, gives! Applause!

[Mike A]

Thanks to you both. One of the most important points for me, when illustrating buildings, is to get as accurate a sense of shadow as possible. It's the shadow that creates the "life".

[eighty+]

Hi. Mike A. Yes I like your. Work. And details overall. The only thing that upsets me. Is. The thatched Roof. Being so grey?? Ok CIAO HASTA LA VISTA. IVAYA CON DIOS. SLAINTE

[Mike A]

Cheers, eighty+ - yes, the thatch is indeed grey - weathered by the sun... and painted fairly accurately. When it was new, it would have been a light brown (reed) colour. And, of course, reed for thatching no longer comes from England in most cases - all from eastern Europe - so perhaps it ages differently.

All the best,

Mike (75+)