Catherine Rayner’s Inspirational Pets

Prize-winning children’s author and illustrator, Catherine Rayner, has opened an exhibition of new and original art work at the Line Gallery in Linlithgow.  Several of her best known characters, including Miles and Giles, the scurrying pheasants, appear but the largest single set of subjects are Harris, Miriam, Frazer and a rich collection of their fellow-hares.

Catherine Rayner studied Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art, fell in love with the city and still lives there with a small menagerie of creatures: Shannon the horse, Ena the grey cat, goldfish Sheila and a speckly black and tan guinea pig called Marvin. She finds huge inspiration in her pets and often uses them as models.  As well illustrating her own work, Catherine has recently illustrated the 40^th anniversary edition of  The Tales of Olga de Polga (the story of a guinea pig) by Michael Bond, creator of Paddington Bear.

But it was a wilder creature by far which inspired her own first picture book, Augustus and His Smile.  Catherine spent countless hours watching and sketching tigers (in freezing temperatures) at Edinburgh Zoo.  The result was a tiger with a name, an appearance and a smile which were all truly imperial and who appears, perhaps the star of the show, in the present exhibition.

The skilfully-produced silk screen prints, liquid acrylic paintings and multi-media works have one universal effect, whether observed by children or adults: they bring a huge smile to the face of the viewer.  The laconic, loping hares are full of life and energy; the highland cattle are knowing and contented; the pig inquisitive.  Yet this is no pathetic fallacy.  These are not romanticised creatures.  What Catherine Rayner, with a rare intelligence, has glimpsed are the connections which draw humans, instinctively, to animals, the behaviours and the vitality which are common to all creatures.

In most cases, each piece shows one creature, in a few two.  The main subject or subjects stands alone without landscape, against a clean white background.  In a very few, there appears also a tiny complementary creature, a bee, a mouse, but the focus is the main subject, made sharp and dominant by the pristine and handsomely proportioned backdrop.  These are works for generous sized, well lit spaces.

Do you want to reconnect with nature or even with your childhood, or simply put a smile on your glum winter-face?  Drop into the Line and engross yourself in Catherine Rayner’s exhibition.  And don’t go alone: take the children or the grandchildren.  Introduce them to the joys of a delightful writer and to the pleasures of observing art.