The Clan of the Cats Paperback Cover 1988

Ken Kelly conjured this paperback cover, "The Clan of the Cats," with a bravura of brushstrokes and a wild imagination. Look at the dance of cool purples, whites, and greys swirling behind our hero, and this lion. I can almost feel the artist wrestling with the oil paint, pushing and pulling the figures into being. What's it like to be the painter here, conjuring this confrontation? It’s a fight to survive, and the artist has set out to record this. The paint seems thinned out, like he was using a solvent to make the colours glide, or blend. The warrior with his sword raised is muscular, capable, but vulnerable. The lion, teeth bared, is so immediate, so present, that you’d think it was about to leap off the canvas. What about that expressive brushstroke that defines the lion’s right ear? I mean, this is how painters talk to each other, right? The painting’s less about brute strength, and more about how we relate to the animal world, and each other. Ultimately the most intriguing question here is how we read each other's paintings, and keep the conversation going.