This six-week-old kitten (named 'Lawrence' by one of my children) was originally in a house full of children who really had no idea how to behave when there are small kittens around - they would go up to it and screem and run away - clearly a household that had never had pets and a household from which this little one needed rescuing.

So, this is how we ended up with him for around four days whiilst he was found a place at the local Cats Protection and subsequently (and after only a very short period of time) found a new, this time suitable, home. He couldn't really have stayed with us because we already have enough cats and it wouldn't have been fair on him or the others.

This is the painting in oils on poplar panel (5"x7"). The colours used are: for the wooden background, magenta and indian yellow glaze over yellow ochre and lead white; for the kitten, lamp black and lead white with yellow ochre and (Winsor and Newton ) rose madder used in the ears and ultramarine and lead tin yellow II in the eyes; lead white, lamp black, raw umber for the parchment with gold leaf (water gilded) for the ground for the 'L' and for the letters 'E' and 'A' with malachite, verdigris ultramarine, lead tin yellow i and ii, minium and rose madder for the colours in the illumination.

Close-up of his left eye, showing the very slight use of ultramarine and lead tin yellow ii.

A simple gilded 'L' in red lead with depth provided by rose madder, lead white and rose madder light dots and a bit of lamp black mixed in with rose madder to make the darker dots

The 'E' in water gilded 24 carat gold leaf with malachite using lead white and verigris to give it depth.

The 'A' in water gilded 24 carat gold leaf with lead tin yellow ii, using lead white for depth and lead tin yellow i and raw umber for the dots

The black is lamp black, the yellow is lead tin yellow ii, the blue is ultramarine and the red is minium (red lead oxide) with some of them having rose madder on them. The highlights are lead white.

This painting is only 5"x7" so the part of the image you can see above is around 1" wide.