His real name is Gaston – he has that  certain ‘Je ne sais quois – non?”

Gaston is a beautiful silver/blue Maine Coon and is completely unaware of his platinum good looks.

Gaston’s focus in life is to explore and find great places to climb so he can watch the world go by and he loves roaming the big outdoors and that is what Maine Coon cats need.   Large cats need big spaces.

Totally accommodating – a true Maine Coon trait – he is also a great friend to have and also loves to sit in on human activities.   Bed making is a favourite and it is always made more interesting when Gaston jumps in under the blankets or rearranges the sheets to something more interesting – mostly a mountainous and lumpy mess which he then plonks himself on and falls asleep.

Gaston in this picture was caught in the window of an old barn – the bleached wood perfectly capturing his natural colouring and making an almost monochromatic painting.

Molly is my youngest cat – the mischievous teenager and a ball of energy and destruction.

She is also Ed’s taunter and how he puts up with her, Lord only knows!   Ed is my big Maine Coon and easily two and a half times her size.   She’s forever ambushing him and using him as a hurdle or as target practice.   Somehow he puts up with her just fine – none of the other cats would though.

Anyway – this is a quick sketch using only white pastel on black paper capturing her in an unusually quiet pose.   She is basically grey and cream striped with a hint of apricot sprinkled in the cream.

I’m not sure whether to leave it as a study or develop further.   If I do develop it further I’ll add in a little brightly coloured toy fish under her right paw.   It will break the monochromatic theme and add a spot of vibrancy.

Bear was a loner when he came into my life.   Formerly belonging to a couple who could no longer care for him the way he needed to be looked after as he is quite a senior citizen now, when common sense decreed he needed to be re-homed, it was me who won the prize.

He is now around 20 something years of age, yet remains agile and active, has a beautiful glossy black coat and a great appetite which maintains his solid weight around 7kgs – which for an old cat is just amazing.  He’s also the most vocal of all my fur babies and often sounds like a cross between a parrot and a dog when racing around the house – the weirdest thing!   It cracks everyone up when he does it – no one believes he’s the age he is.

I’ve done a number of studies of Bear because he’s so black and detail is so hard to capture – I keep looking for that magic formula.   His bright yellow eyes glowing out of his round chubby face are the only way I can tell front from back at a distance and even close up sometimes.   But in the sunlight – what first seems like an amorphous mass of black fur is in fact a rich mahogany undercoat with platinum highlights defining his proud shape with a rich depth of colour.

I will do a proper portrait of Bear one day but this was a lot of fun just playing around with sunlight and shadow and introducing Bear’s toy mouse for a bit of additional interest.

Footnote:

17 March 2020, 4.45pm   My darling Bear was put to sleep.   My heart is broken.   He was about 25 years old which is a great old age for a cat but his time suddenly had come, his health was failing quickly and he was not strong enough to endure any treatment that would have maybe only added a few days to his already long life.   There would have been no quality of existence for him.    He now has a special shaded resting place in my garden where I pass every day and remember him.   Planted on his grave is a  yellow flowering Clivia to honour the colour of his gorgeous eyes – I look forward to seeing those blooms in Spring.

Edmund (Ed or Eddie) the Maine Coon is really a German Shepherd in disguise.

Massive build, powerful presence and with marvellous, rich colouring, he is to the cat world what the Shepherd is to the dog world.   A magnificent, intelligent and super-aware animal and quite the king of his realm.

At 10kg he’s naturally no feather and yet his gentle nature and ability to sense when things aren’t right with me or I’m stressed is simply amazing.   A soft paw on my arm taking me completely by surprise or his big face peering into my eyes as I wake in the morning after a restless night is gentleness akin to the brush of a feather.

Big and robust in size, he’s the most patient and tolerant of all my cats and puts up with my kitten Molly giving him the hardest of times.   She can be frankly annoying as she pesters him, tussles with him, ambushes him, uses him as a high jump.    All the while he puts up with her and in so doing, leaves her in no doubt that while she thinks she’s in control, he is absolutely her hero.

He was the first of  my cats to be painted because he is also the first member to arrive of my current cat family – the others all came after he did.   Plus, he’s also the most devoted.

Edmund – the cat you have when you can’t have a dog!