The London Cat Map

Having created a Dogs of London Map well as a Peckham Cat Walk map, finally I have a London Cat Map too!

Londoners, along with the rest of the UK, love their cats and the city is teaming with cat related stories, works of art and historical anecdotes (as well as ACTUAL cats).  Having trawled many books and the internet (the home of cat facts and fiction), as well as the streets of London, I have picked out some of my favourite cats of the capital to hand draw then create the purr-fect plan.  I find digital media the most rewarding when creating such a collage, as it gives me the freedom to experiment with layouts and text, as well as make use of my hand drawn illustrations, and I can mix traditional skills with technology.

A great resource for me when researching this was the website purr-n-fur.org.uk, as well as the ever-brilliant Londonist.

This wholly unscholarly cat-o-graphic map illustrates the history of felines in the capital, and can be purchased as a high quality archival digital print from the Garudio Studiage shop

 

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Sea Monster Soup print

I have a piece of work in an exhibition 'The Thames The Artery of London' about the river Thames, curated by Plastic Propaganda, on at Devon House, St Katherine Docks, 4^th – 18^th December.

My piece is a 3 colour screen print ‘Sea Monster Soup’ 40 x 50cm.

This piece is inspired by the 1850 engraving 'Monster Soup commonly called Thames Water by William Heath, a satire of a microscopic examination by Arthur Hassell of the water supplied to the inhabitants of London portraying the ‘monsters’ found in a drop of water from the Thames. Just 50 years ago, the Thames was so polluted it was declared "biologically extinct", too dirty for anything to survive there. But  sightings of various marine mammals and other species over the last few years confirm that the river is springing back to life.

There have been regular sightings of harbour and grey seals, dolphins and harbour porpoises, and of course the ill-fated journey into the Thames by the ‘River Thames Whale’ (northern bottlenose whale )  in 2006.

Sea Monster Soup by Anna Walsh