Content Catnip

Featured Artist: Jen Muir’s Photorealistic Pet Portraits

Jen Muir is an illustrator currently residing in Scotland where she crafts intricate, sublime and whimsical watercolours and pencil drawings.

Although she’s always loved making art, Jen begun working as an artist when she took a year off University to do a visual communications course.

“I usually use watercolour and graphite for making things, but lately I’ve been experimenting with oil pencils and pastels. I typically make illustrative work for children and scientific illustrations,” she says.

Jen has a strong affinity with animals. She is well known for her fantastical paintings of animals both real and imagined in strangely beautiful contexts.

These paintings resonated deeply with me. I saw that Jen also does pet portraits so I got in touch with her for a pet portrait of my favourite furry friend – a cheeky and mischievous Burmese cat named Pearl.

Pearl by Jen Muir

Pearl – the original photo

Pearl currently resides with my mum, but I still fancy that I am her favourite human, even though we live on a different continent. I commissioned Jen to do a watercolour of Pearl, so that I could stare up at her all the time in my lounge room.

Over the years, Jen has developed her freelance business as an artist. She took a course on starting up a small business with the Princes Trust and found this useful to learn the boring but necessary skills of kicking off a freelance enterprise.

As well as being a creative, Jen is a roving adventurer at heart.

“In the future I would like to combine my art with more animal conservation interests, possibly through illustrating species guides and educational work,” says Jen.

Soon she is off to Brazil for a month for conservation research, and she plans on making some beautiful art there.

Thank you Jen for your beautiful painting of Pearl. Good luck in Brazil!

Do you have a pet that you absolutely adore? Perhaps one that has sadly now left this world? I recommend getting Jen to immortalise your pet with one of her wonderful true-to-life paintings.

Her prices are really reasonable for the quality of the painting received. View her portfolio and book your pet portrait

Travel: Yarchen Gar, Tibet

Yarchen Gar also known as the Yaqên Orgyän Temple is located in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, China

Geographically remote and nestled in a valley some 4,000 metres above sea level, the temple rarely sees tourists or visitors. The monastery is associated with the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism . At Yarchen Gar there is a concentration of more than 10,000 nuns and monks – the largest collective of buddhist acolytes in the world.

The abbot Achuk Rinpoche practices mainly Dzogchen. He teaches in both Tibetan and Chinese languages and attracts students from all over China.

The Chinese government still refuse to recognise the religion and so most of the population of Yarchen Gar constantly fear their removal from the temple. The remoteness and cloistered atmosphere hampers any tourist vistors. Although there is a basic hotel and restaurant close to the gate.

Book Review: The Act of Love by Howard Jacobson

Written in a highly addictive confessional style, The Act of Love by Howard Jacobson traces the inner life of London antiquarian bookseller and closet sexual pervert Felix Quinn. In this intense novel, Felix takes the reader to the edge of sexual adventure. This is a strange romp in the mind of a guy who cannot truly find sexual satisfaction unless he sees his wife in the arms of another man.

This consuming obsession means that Felix can barely function, unless he is plotting to present his wife to other unaware suitors. He designs many different sexual scenarios and encounters on the sly. His ‘victims’ are distant cousins on a visit to his fancy Marylebone house in London or business associates. His wife is exasperated by it all and barely tolerates it.

This is an extremely enjoyable and an extreme novel. It has power and depth and sexual potency beyond what’s hinted at on its cover. Felix the narrator of the story lacks dimension and visibility precisely because his imaginings and erotic yearnings are so ever-present and part of the story. In contrast the other characters, the objects of his desire, loom so large in Felix’s imagination that the reader, along with Felix becomes all-consumed by these fantasies as well.

Finally, Felix meets his darkest match in the form of a seductive suitor called Marius. A pompous and precocious young intellectual that he pushes into his wife’s life – like some sort of decorated confection. That they almost have the same name Marius and Marisa is a clue to their interlinked erotic and fantastical destiny. Marius and Marisa are made into beautiful and dangerously seductive set pieces in the warped sexual imagination of the narrator Felix.

After reading this book, through his eyes and lens it’s hard to not also be seduced by these two visionary and equally erotic and dangerous beings, Marius and Marisa who are never given a chance to actually speak for themselves in the book.

Instead the two are mere beautiful set pieces and play things in the game of Felix’s sexual satisfaction. This is an intense, weighty and erotic novel that will consume your attention.

Travel: Baby seal on Mahia Beach, New Zealand

Every Picture Tells a Story: Seal of Mahia Beach

While visiting family on the east coast of New Zealand we came upon a little baby seal or what the Scottish would call a selkie (a water spirit) lurking precariously close to the road. She was laying in a clump of harakeke flax and staring up at us with wide, black shiny eyes. I was transfixed by her and proceeded to make sure that she was OK.

Seal on Mahia Beach Copyright Content Catnip 2017

She had no visible injuries and indeed appearing simply to be chilling out. Knowing nothing of roadside seals in New Zealand I waived down a passing car and dramatically asked them to use their mobile phone in order to call the Department of Conservation (DOC) about what to do with an abandoned baby seal. The people in the car were bemused, why did I care so much about one baby seal? I couldn’t explain why really…she was special.

They said to do nothing and to leave her alone. Basically her mother has left her for an extended period to go and catch fish and she will need to now fend for herself.

I did worry, leaving this long-lashed and silken creature to the elements and the dangerously close roadside, but on the advice of the experts we left her there, staring back at us with those comely and liquid black eyes.

I hope that she had the sense to get back into the Pacific rather than towards the road. In this cruel way, we let nature take its course. I toyed for hours with the idea of going back and mounting a rescue mission, despite what the DOC ranger said, but my boyfriend talked some sense into me.

Travel: The Royal Palace in Madrid

Tapas of bread with fresh sardines, basil, cheese and tomatoes in Madrid, what I actually remember from the palace tour. Copyright Content Catnip 2009

It was broiling and steaming at about 38 degrees in Madrid that day. Looking out over the vista of Madrid during the peak of the siesta period it seemed that all the traffic had stopped and all of the sensible people in the city had retreated inside, except for the tourists like me of course. I was carrying the burden of the heat and my jetlag and so I have a memory blank about my tour of the Royal Palace in Madrid, which is to say that my body and my mind weren’t up for the exercise of memory and I have no idea if I actually liked it or enjoyed it.

Pretty soon after the tour, I sat down with some tapas of bread lathered in fresh sardines, cheese, basil and tomato sauce along with a huge jug of sparkling water and that was the part that I remember, not the actual palace itself. The food afterwards was like being plunged into an oasis of luscious sensory pleasure after being alone in the desert for eight hours. The meal was remarkable and filled with the flavours of the sundrenched country with a vibrant tomato taste of the like I had never experienced in my life before, also the sardines were fresh and piquant, it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Every Picture Tells A Story: The Royal Palace in Madrid — Madrid in midsummer 2009

Travel: Walks along the Water of Leith, Edinburgh

The Polish Bear and I went on a lot of adventures together while living in Edinburgh. One of our favourite walking trails was the devastatingly beautiful Water of Leith.

This natural body of water crosses over the Forth and Clyde Canal, which I’ve written about extensively before. The Water of Leith snakes its way through picturesque outer suburbs of Edinburgh such as Balerno, Juniper Green and Colinton Village and past beautiful meadows, gardens, lush forests and old stone cottages. I have a dearly held wish to own one of these sandstone beauties that back onto the Water of Leith and to take some tea on a deck with the babbling river and rustling trees as a soundtrack to my morning.

I took a photo of what might just be the most perfectly cosy abode in all of Edinburgh, between Juniper Green and Balerno. Could this place be any cuter?

The sunshine on this day in April 2013 was beautiful, and all the more precious because it’s rarer than hen’s teeth in this part of the world. It’s days like this that make Edinburgh shine like a rare jewel and that convince you that it’s a beautiful city that’s unlike any other. This was a romantic and special day for us oweing in a big part to these bucolic surroundings and the soft, spring sunshine.

I’ve honestly never seen such a showy and outrageous array of green hues as I did on this day! It was magical.

Travel: Walks along the Water of Leith, Edinburgh Copyright Content Catnip 2017

To round out a wonderful afternoon we stopped at the Riccarton Inn and had fish and chips.

Fish, chips and mushy peas at the Riccarton Inn Copyright Content Catnip 2013

Travel: Delightful Art Deco Bollards in Napier

Whereas in Australia bollards are being erected everywhere to protect against trucks driving through people on the street, in little old New Zealand, the bollard means something completely different and is used to great decorative affect in the town of Napier in New Zealand. These Art Deco bollards are dotted around all of the streets and their mosaics represent the aesthetic of this dreamy, nostalgic place which is delightfully stuck in the roaring 20s.

The bollards as they appear on the main street of Napier which is pedestrian friendly. Copyright Content Catrnip 2017

The only thing that’s missing from Napier are the characters from a Jack Vettriano painting

Jack Vettriano, the man in the navy jacket.

Travel: Hiking in Ireland

When I was in Glenadough, Ireland the land spoke volumes to me. It felt and it indeed was ancient. The Irish people exist in comfortable relation to it, and appreciate its melodic shifts and seasons, as they have done for thousands of years. There are vast tracts of low-lying suburbs around Dublin. It’s almost always raining, in a soft and gentle patter which provides a glittery sheen on everything. People here go about their business despite the weather. In some people’s view this could be seen as miserable drizzle, but it’s actually a tiny bit magical and mystical. Without any warning, the peopled districts give way to lush green meadows, jaunty rocks and misty vapours that blur the line between the sky and the ground. There are subtle signs here of the ancients, in the tiny rumbles of streams and crystal clear cascades of water running over sharp mountain sides. Large, immovable boulders and monoliths litter the mountain valleys like punctuation marks along with croft houses and ancient churches. The wild and bright pink heather, peat and moss snakes around everything like the pillows of the pagan gods.

Exploring early mediaeval churches in Eirann — One of the oldest remaining churches in Glenadough, Ireland Copyright Content Catnip 2010

Travel: Celestial ceilings and soaring skies in Poland

Another cathedral ceiling, this time in Wroclaw. Copyright Content Catnip 2016 https://wp.me/p41CQf-IE8

When I was in Poland, going around to all of the cathedrals and churches, there was a hushed reverence and peaceful vibe that permeated everything and everyone. It was akin to being wrapped inside of the embrace of a friend or loved one. Although I’m not a religious person at all I experienced a sense of sublime silence come over me and it reached deeply into my soul. I’ve always been a fan of the peacefulness of churches. I think some of these photographs that I took really encapsulate the atmosphere in these places and could be used as an album cover for a dreamy ambient music opus.

Celestial ceilings and soaring skies in Poland — An evocative ceiling in a cathedral in Krakow. Copyright Content Catnip 2016 https://wp.me/p41CQf-IE8

Travel: A winter afternoon of contemplation in Queenstown

Overlooking the majestic and pure beauty of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, the peace and serenity of the place lends itself well to comtemplating life plans, love, the meaning of it all. The dramatic cathedral of the big sky and jutting snow-capped mountains is ever-changing and there’s a reverent silence here like inside of a medieval church. It’s important to take a step back and contemplate everything and not be constantly moving forward every second of your life. Sometimes the real work occurs when we are simply being rather than doing. If only being and contemplation looked as good as this every day, I don’t know how I would ever find the motivation to work again!