I really enjoyed painting this, having intended from the start to keep this picture loose and 'unfinished', a style perfected by the greatest of all Wildlife painters (IMVHO) Raymond Harris-Ching (although Singer-Sargent's great work 'Madame X' is a powerful earlier example).

Unfortunately, Ray's work is hard to find on the net as, with his usual obstinacy, he has no web site and doesn’t own a computer. I offered once to build him a web site gratis, but he declined. Still, a Google search will turn up a few examples of his work, and I can recommend one of his books in particular: "Wild Portraits", which has probably influenced my work more than any other single source. Perhaps Amazon has it...Hang on, I'll look for you........
Yep, its over 200 bucks for a used copy, but I assure you, worth every cent.

The magnificent cat in this painting was a female called Samara who I was lucky enough to pet and scratch while she purred like a giant pussy cat, one of the most amazing animals I've had the pleasure of meeting. Moments like that are the reason why I paint animals. To have a moment of real 'contact' with a wild creature is a joy far beyond the feeble power of words to express. I've had these experiences with a tiny Kingfisher, a 30 foot Humpback whale, and many others in between. I try to get the feeling of this phenomenon with paint, but it can't really be done - not by me at least, but when I come to paint the animal I get to feel a bit of that moment again.