From the far-off days of his boyhood at Creswick until his death in 1969, Norman Lindsay was a keen observer and lover of cats. During his last three decades at Springwood it could be said that he collected cats of all descriptions; many roamed in the sheds, stables, garden and bushland, with a few in the house. Only one was specially chosen to be the Studio Cat.
Norman Lindsay: Artful Cats contains picture which have never before been published and rare family photographs from the Lindsay and Stewart estates. There are drawings and paintings of cats in all guises, with particular emphasis on Studio Cat Fuzz Buzz, Cat Stories and the wonderful Whimsical Cats, all of which display the full range of Norman's wit and imagination. The chapter of letters from Norman to Margaret Coen and Met Stewart provides a rare insight into Norman's empathy with his cat family.
Liberally illustrated in both colour and black and white, Artful Cats is the definitive book on Norman Lindsay's cats and a must for every cat lover.
Meg Stewart, filmmaker turned journalist, author and cat person, is the daughter of artist Margaret Coen and poet Douglas Stewart. For the first six years of her life, she lived in what had earlier been the painting studio of Norman Lindsay at 12 Bridge Street, Sydney. During her childhood and teenage years, she was a frequent visitor to the Springwood retreat of the Lindsays and had a personal acquaintance with, at least, some of it fabled tribe of cats.
Meg Stewart's own literary output includes the biography of Margaret Coen, Autobiography of My Mother and the art book Margaret Coen: A Passion for Painting, as well as fiction writing. Her first novel was Modern Men Don't Shift Fridges, published in 1999 and her most recent, The Dream Life of Harry Moon, was published in 2001.