Has anyone read the book "Why cats paint"? It's amazing! These cats paint with their front paws, on canvas (or walls
), most often painting things they can see. An interesting thing is that they appear to upend the images, so a vase of daffodils would be painted by a cat with vertical green strokes, with yellow splodges underneath. They really enjoy painting, and their art has been sold for thousands of dollars. They also seem to have an idea of what the picture will be - there was one cat who was painting a picture on a canvas on the wall, and indicated to its owner to put a stool nearby so it could finish the series of marks it was making up the wall. Here's some pictures, (not very good but you get the idea),
here and
here (look especially at frequent feathers, and hydrangea hussies
).
Then yesterday I was watching 60 Minutes, and there was a story about elephants painting, using a brush in their trunk. This is actually a very worthy cause, proceeds from the sale of their paintings goes to helping look after elephants in Asia. Their art is more abstract, and unlike the cats, who have a palette of many colours and choose whatever they want, the elephants are given a colour to use by humans. Here's a sample of their work
here (click on the various pictures under the place names), and
here (use the arrows to see all four elephant's work).
Hmm, I wonder if Tuppence has a creative streak...