From the far-off days
of his boyhood at Creswick until his death in 1969, Norman Lindsay
was a keen observer and lover of cats. During his last three decades
at Springwood it could be said that he collected cats of all descriptions;
many roamed in the sheds, stables, garden and bushland, with a
few in the house. Only one was specially chosen to be the Studio
Cat.
Norman Lindsay: Artful Cats contains picture which have never
before been published and rare family photographs from
the Lindsay and Stewart
estates. There are drawings and paintings of cats in all guises,
with particular emphasis on Studio Cat Fuzz Buzz, Cat Stories and
the wonderful Whimsical Cats, all of which display the full range
of Norman's wit and imagination. The chapter of letters from Norman
to Margaret Coen and Met Stewart provides a rare insight into Norman's
empathy with his cat family.
Liberally illustrated in both colour and black and white, Artful
Cats is the definitive book on Norman Lindsay's cats and a must
for every cat lover.
Meg Stewart, filmmaker turned journalist, author and cat person,
is the daughter of artist Margaret Coen and poet Douglas Stewart.
For the first six years of her life, she lived in what had
earlier been the painting studio of Norman Lindsay at 12
Bridge Street,
Sydney. During her childhood and teenage years, she was a frequent
visitor
to the Springwood retreat of the Lindsays and had a personal
acquaintance with, at least, some of it fabled tribe of cats.
Meg Stewart's own literary output includes the biography of
Margaret Coen, Autobiography of My Mother and the art book
Margaret Coen:
A Passion for Painting, as well as fiction writing. Her first
novel was Modern Men Don't Shift Fridges, published in 1999
and her most
recent, The Dream Life of Harry Moon, was published in 2001.
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