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The Grey Cat

October 4th, 2021

The Grey Cat

I didn’t know cats could growl, but Roberto’s grey cat was definitely snarling around us whenever we were visiting.



When we were sitting around the living room, the beautiful little panther would walk among us emitting a deep, menacing growl.



Nobody dared to engage with the cat, we kind of pretend not to notice the threat.

After her display of discontent the angry feline would leave the room with obvious contempt for us, the annoying visitors.



During a football match, when everyone was cheering and jeering, I (not much of a football fan) had a nap on a chair strategically placed in a quiet corner.



Half asleep, I felt the alarming presence of the cat circling me like a shark before the attack.

In the hope she would spare me I decided to play dead and kept my eyes closed.



She came so close (too close for my taste) to my face that I could feel her whiskers on my cheek. I was simply too scared to move.



To my utter amazement, she delicately put her cheek to mine and hugged my neck with her soft front paws.



Then, when she got me in total awe, she stated purring.






Art School and Giant Ears

August 11th, 2021

I didn’t receive a formal fine art education. I just love painting animals and I followed many art courses whenever and wherever I could. 

I reluctantly received a classical education in high school and then I took biology studies at university because, guess what, I was interested in zoology.

Art was sorely missing from my subjects so I decided to take matters into my capable hands and I started following a drawing course as extra curricular activity.

I was living in Spain at the time, I found a local well known artist (I won’t tell you the name) that was giving lessons and I eagerly enrolled.

I arrived at the studio: it was a rather old and gloomy apartment in the center of town but it was crawling with youngsters filled with hopes and ambitions and that was enough for me to find it interesting.

I don’t remember anything like some kind of lecture, explanation or introduction to any art technique. 

I was just given a ballpoint pen with a piece of paper and to my amazement, I was placed in front of a giant human ear made of plaster and I was told to start drawing it.

Surprisingly enough I found the exercise interesting: sketching the intricate pattern of the ear as an almost abstract painting was a challenge and the time of the first lesson flew by.

Things started going downhill when I realized that the following lessons were going to be more of the same until I finally started doubting the teaching method of that acclaimed painter.

Actually these lessons with me sitting in front of the giant ear made me feel like I was living in a Woody Allen movie until finally I decided that I had learned enough of the nooks and crannies of the giant ear and I moved on.

Maybe it was a zen lesson but since then my self confidence grew and I stared favoring art courses that encouraged more my creativity than the sheer technique.

In time I began painting with watercolors, I tried landscapes and flowers but nothing could compare with the pleasure of studying animals, my first love.

Digital illustration techniques are reshaping the figurative art world for all artists, including humble craftspeople like me.

I am enjoying tools I never dreamed of when I was sitting in front of that giant ear and my crafts and skills are evolving in unexpected ways.

Bright Eyes - A Siamese Cat Story

July 14th, 2021

Bright Eyes - A Siamese Cat Story

It was a dark and stormy night and two alarmingly glowing eyes were looking at me from outside the window.

I was coming back from a theater show. A Dracula story was on that evening, the perfect title for such a foul night.

To get back home I had to drive my tiny car over an icy and twisting road.

Finally home, I was exhausted, ready for a drink and a warm bed but those eyes looking at me from outside the window, woke me up completely.

As a dedicated science student I refused to believe in supernatural despite the evocative Dracula show. Summoning all my bravery I cautiously approached the window and slowly opened it.

The owner of the two gleaming eyes, a beautiful siamese cat, looked back at me and entered the room with the wonderful nonchalance of a rightful owner.

She sat on my desk and started her grooming routine with an attitude.

I was completely baffled.

A couple of years before, not far from there, two precious siamese kittens had disappeared inexplicably from our home.
Could she be one of them? Was she lost? Or maybe she was a wandering escape artist?

Whatever was her story, she had chosen my house and I was glad to enjoy her company for the night.

She stayed.

When I was studying she would sit on my desk and look at me with her mesmerizing Bombay sapphire eyes or drape around my neck as a luxury scarf.

The aristocratic siamese cat was content to share my simple meals and in return she would thoughtfully deposit little dead birds in the middle of my bed just to make sure I would not miss her offerings.

My landlady tried to convince the siamese to move to her house with fresh sardines and scrumptious food.

The cat graciously accepted the gifts but never moved to the landlady's apartment.

Finally my course of studies ended and, reluctantly, I had to leave my student life, my friends, the town and the cat behind.

I was told that she stubbornly refused to lodge with the landlady and soon after my leaving she disappeared as mysteriously as she had arrived.