28 a cat in every corner - d2qwzu24wcp0pu.cloudfront.net · “her last housemate was dear ......
TRANSCRIPT
W
ALK through Lesley Anne
Ivory’s front door and
there’s no mistaking
where her affections lie.
There are cat paintings on
the walls, cat cushions on the chairs
and cat collectables on every surface.
Adorable feline faces peer out from
plates and spice jars, mugs, rugs,
jigsaws and tins, each furry body set
against an intricately worked
background.
Almost all the cats have at some time
belonged to Lesley Anne and her
family, and yet cat lovers across the
world feel that they know them, too.
Lesley Anne’s detailed cat portraits
have been featured on merchandise
worldwide, as well as in a range of
bestselling books that began in the
1980s.
Lesley Anne lives with her husband,
Evan – a renowned aviation artist – in
a small Hertfordshire village. At times,
they have shared their spacious house
and garden with up to 21 cats,
including litters of kittens, but now
there is just one four-legged resident,
Amulet, a beautiful silver-grey Burmilla.
I first met Amulet – Mumu to the family
– 14 years ago as a feisty kitten and
clearly things haven’t changed.
“Mumu would make life unbearable
for any newcomers,” Lesley Anne
recalls as we settle down in the
sitting-room surrounded by her
collection of Art Deco furniture and
china. “Her last housemate was dear
black-and-white Angel who departed
two years ago and always got a rough
deal from Mumu, though Angel took
no notice.”
Mumu is certainly a diva. A recent
attempt by an American TV crew to
film her with Lesley Anne took seven
hours, eight reels of film and a huge
amount of patience. And all for a short
snippet of airtime.
“And of course as I waved goodbye
to the team at the front door, Mumu
appeared in the hall with a smug
expression on her face as if to say, ‘That
went well, didn’t it!’ She’s certainly no
advertisement for her breed, but of
course Evan and I love her to bits.’’
F
ROM the time she was a very small
child, Lesley Anne made little
books, illustrated them and bound
them as gifts for friends and family. She
also designed greetings cards and
painted calendars as Christmas
presents.
‘‘I can clearly remember having two
ambitions, to be an artist and to be a
mum, and I’ve been lucky enough to
do both,’’ Lesley Anne says, adding she
has two sons, James and Julian, and
now two teenage granddaughters.
She met Evan on a general art course
where both specialised in illustration,
and friendship turned to love. She first
worked as an art teacher, doing her
own work in the evenings and
submitting card designs to Oxfam until
eventually she received her first
acceptance – a snow scene with
skaters. A prize entry in a national
newspaper competition attracted the
attention of other card manufacturers
and by the time second son Julian was
born, Lesley Anne had completed a set
of board books and pre-school readers.
‘‘I didn’t specialise in cats then, but
had painted lots of cat portraits without
A Cat In Every Corner
Lesley Anne Ivory’s charming illustrations have delighted many over the years. Gillian Thornton
discovers the story behind them . . .
Lesley Anne with
some of her
work.
The fiesty Mumu!
Tansy and her
kittens amongst
the Victorian
scraps.
28
backgrounds, when I suddenly had the
idea of creating a photographic
resemblance of Muppet, our Persian
cat, on a Persian carpet,’’ she explains.
‘‘I showed it to a design company I had
worked with and they asked me to do
some more.
‘‘Then one of the cards attracted the
attention of a New York professor of
fine art who was planning a picture
book called ‘Cats Know Best’ with
simple captions about cats. I was
invited to do the illustrations and as a
result, was commissioned to do a solo
follow-up, ‘Meet My Cats’.”
The rest is publishing history. More
books followed and with them a whole
host of merchandising opportunities
from companies such as Danbury Mint
and Halcyon Days. Suddenly Ivory Cats
were popping up in homes across the
world on tea towels and diaries, mugs,
plates and watches. So whilst Mumu
may currently be the only one with four
paws on the planet, none of her
predecessors has ever really gone.
‘‘I have a huge bank of photos and
pencil drawings which I use to recreate
their different poses – the way their fur
lies, and the different nuances of
colour,’’ Lesley Anne explains.
The detail is such that she will often
use a single brush hair to add fine
detail to her portraits. She works in an
upstairs studio, whilst Evan works
downstairs, both as busy now as
they’ve ever been.
‘‘I’m painting our feline family all the
time so I never really feel I have
actually lost one, even though it’s sad
when one goes,’’ she continues. ‘‘In
fact, I often think they are here all the
time. Mumu will sit on my lap in the
evening, all covered in knitting or
crochet, and suddenly sit up with eyes
wide, but not in a fearful way. Maybe
it’s Angel come back for a visit!”
F
OR the last two years, Lesley Anne
has been painting her old friends
again in a major project for her fans
across the Atlantic – 12 designs against
backgrounds that celebrate American
festive days. She shows me a glorious
picture of Mumu looking through a
window fringed with Art Deco stained
glass and overlooking a snow-covered
Central Park. On the window-sill, a
miniature Mumu skates in a snow
globe.
‘‘They’ll be brought together in a
calendar but individual designs can be
used for other things, too,’’ Lesley Anne
explains.
She can spend weeks on one
painting.
“I am just finishing off number ten
and have worked solidly on them for
nearly two years, only really breaking
off to do my annual Christmas card.
The project’s been huge fun. For
February and Valentine’s Day, for
The People’s Friend
real-lifeinstance, I’ve got dear old Spiro on a
background of a Pennsylvanian
wedding quilt, and March is fluffy
Dandelion playing with a Celtic harp for
St Patrick’s Day. For Hallowe’en in
October, I’ve got cats going berserk
with broomsticks and cobwebs, but I
do always try to maintain the dignity
that cats deserve when placed in such
a situation!”
Lesley Anne’s detailed backgrounds
are legendary and she has spent
countless hours at the British Museum
researching fabrics and patterns.
Nowadays the internet is a wonderful
tool for browsing backgrounds from
across the globe in the comfort of
home, not just for textiles but leaves,
flowers and locations.
Ask her who stands out amongst all
the cats she has loved across the years
and the answer is simple – they all do.
“Every single cat has presented me
with different things to try to capture
against suitable colours and
backgrounds,’’ she insists. ‘‘Julian’s cat,
Twiglet, for instance, was a real
character who would pinch the
shortbread from your fingers if you let
him and was always getting into
scrapes.
“And Gabby, being black, wasn’t an
eye-catching colour, but was always
aware of what was going on. I’d be
doing the newspaper crossword and
she’d suddenly materialise and practise
a spot of colour-coding by sitting in the
middle of it! Every one of them
provided me with new inspiration.”
Now Lesley Anne is awaiting dates
for a major exhibition of her work at
the Chris Beetles Gallery in London,
which always stocks some of her
original paintings. The exhibition will
bring together more than 100 pictures
from Lesley Anne’s entire portfolio and
will be accompanied by a coffee-table
book, guaranteed to delight fans and
ensure that past generations of Ivory
Cats will continue to make their
presence felt. n
If you would like to see more of Lesley Anne Ivory’s work, turn to page 34 where we have a very special offer for you.
Dandelion and the
nest in Pembrokeshire.
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