Linda Jane Smith is one of Britain's best-loved artist/illustrators. I first met her in 1984, when we worked together as artists in Birmingham, UK. Our paths have meandered and crossed over the years, but I am lucky enough to still count her as a soulmate. Linda's exquisitely detailed works of cats in comic, adventurous and curious situations are now revered across the UK, Europe, America and Australasia by long-standing collectors and new fans alike. Linda now has her work licensed by Washington Green as limited edition prints, and also on greeting cards, accessories and cast collectables. But, unlike many leading American licensed artists, Linda herself takes a back seat to her work, letting its brilliance speak for her. I felt that it was high time the world knew a little about the gentle and exceptional genius behind those naughty felines………

I visited Linda in her home in the leafy outskirts of Birmingham, close to her roots. I asked the obvious question - what made her want to become an artist? She told me about her enriching childhood; growing up in a loving household with the works of Beatrix Potter and Mabel Lucie Attwell as company. "I was always drawing and copying, reading, being read to. My sister and brother drew as children and my Mum and Dad have always been very creative people". Linda's Father is an engineer. As she grew up, Linda discovered one of her all-time passions, the C19 Scottish designer and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, together with the Mackmurdo sisters and the Glasgow School; and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has a large collection of their work, and like myself, Linda, (a pure Pre-Raphaelite beauty herself) spent many hours transfixed by paintings and designs of Edward Burne Jones, William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the museum's collection. As illustrators, the works of fellow Victorians Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham inspired Linda in her own kind of fantasy.

The humour in Linda's work is one of its biggest attractions. I asked her if it was growing up with cats and their antics that made her want to draw and paint them?
"As a family we always had cats around. I grew up with Tim, a round, grey tabby, from aged 8 to 17 years, until I went off to college. And of course I've always had timeshare cats! They just wander in and out of here." (a sleek grey number is lying across the back of my chair chewing my earring as we speak, while a more rotund friend lies precariously on the conservatory roof).

I asked her about her influences and personal heroes now she is an established artist herself. Linda has changed her style over the years -her work has matured into a more graphic, richer, detailed style, with a classical attention to detail using a Post-Impressionist pointillist approach to construction. But the Influence of her childhood and parents is still evident in her work. Linda revealed that her early love of Mackintosh is still as strong.
"His design philosophy is the same as mine", she said. "Mackintosh's art embraced many forms of design, including architecture, both exterior and interior, fabric design, jewellery and furniture, right down to miniscule detail such as hinges and light fittings. I have studied them in his Glasgow masterpieces Willow Tea Rooms, Hill House, and the Glasgow School of Art, and they are amazing". Mackintosh's influence on many twentieth century art and design movements, in particular American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is very evident today. Linda's approach to her work is akin to this kind of precision engineering. She actually trained as a designer, and her thorough approach to her work embraces all design disciplines, including perspective drawing, making, and sculpture. Linda is a great admirer of the illustrator Kit Williams, of "Masquerade" fame, and she is now friends with him and his wife Eleyne, who designs and makes exquisite jewellery. Nicola (Tiger Voyage) Bayley has also influenced Linda's style.

I am fascinated by the attention to detail in Linda's work, and also her understanding of composition and colour, particularly in her latest work, A Tale of Two Kitties*. So how does she approach work of this complexity? Linda, where on earth do you start? I was not surprised to discover that it's an approach perfected by the Old Masters……
"I mainly use designers gouache for the finished piece. I work on many ideas at first, then begin to pare them down. I then sketch out the complete piece, usually larger than the finished work, colour wash the whole piece to check the tonal balance, and then I commit to the final piece in gouache, in which I work to actual size". The resulting work is intense, jewel-like and brilliant in every detail.

So how has success affected Linda? I asked her to describe a typical LJS day. And that a little fantasy is OK!!
"I always get up early. I like to seize the day! After a breakfast of toast, honey, and some good coffee, I like to wander through my garden. My studio overlooks the garden through the conservatory and I listen to Radio 4 all day. But I do like to get out - it's so important to feel outside stimulus and to keep fresh ideas coming in. I still go to the gym three times a week" (Something that I never quite followed Linda in….). Linda, like most of us city girls, is drawn to the country to visit, but looks to the city for life, people, bustle, shops, galleries and markets. "I visit antiques shops and charity shops and many of my "finds" turn up in my paintings. I love people and I love to socialise. My home is my passion - I see it as a project and I use it to work out many of my design ideas. I change rooms about and create room sets which I often use as backgrounds in my work." Linda likes to keep weekends for friends and family. She divides her time between home and her boyfriend Leon's cottage in the Cotswolds. Leon is a design engineer, and also an accomplished painter. In the evening, she sometimes takes in Birmingham' s glowing restaurant scene, or an exhibition, unless she is consumed by her work. She adores visiting historic houses and gardens, the coast, and our ancient woodlands.
Pressed on the fantasy front, cake features largely. Now we're talking. "My fantasy would be a luscious picnic, on a beach, on a cliff, in woodlands. I love the light at the seaside." I have always found that painting is such an isolated profession. With such a love of life, is Linda disciplined, or does she find it hard to knuckle down to it?
"Easy!! It's something I love. I never have a problem starting work, whether it is a new piece or I'm just finishing one. Sometimes my other loves get in the way, but usually I can paint anywhere, my mood doesn't matter. I paint every day except weekends, and even then If I am alone. All artists need a break occasionally to try new styles, to refresh their vision. Weekends away taking in influences are very good for me".

Linda's home is packed with visual and tactile inspiration. I asked her about her other design interests. "Textiles, wallcoverings, antique handbags, Jewellery. Found objects. Everything influences everything else. I work my ideas through with my home as a vehicle; eclectic styles, exotic with classic, precious with cheap. When I am not painting, I make things. I love fashion and Interior design, particularly 20s/30's Europe, 60's and 70's Britain; Mary Quant, Barbara Hulanicki of Biba (this writer's all time heroine) Historic gardens, conservatories; I am constantly progressing my ideas and keep thousands of cuttings, scrap books and sketchbooks of working drawings for future projects and for the backgrounds in my paintings".

So. Big Question. How does an artist with such a respect for her own creations feel about her work being licensed?
"I love it!! I started with greetings cards ten years ago and I have never looked back. Now I am working on a range of products for cats - bowls, collars, mats, cat-nip pillows (Thinks: my cat Cleo will love those) cat beds, jigsaws, ceramic models. I like to have total control over product and Washington Green are immensely supportive. It's great to be working in 3D now - it's another avenue for my ideas". It's also interesting to consider how many of Linda's earlier influences, like Rackham, Mackintosh and Potter - have been successfully licensed over the years.

Linda has always been quite a private person. I asked her how she felt about the "cult of personality" behind some of America's leading licensed artists?
"I love to do promotional appearances, such as book signings and gallery openings. I was initially nervous, but I'm used to it now. I enjoy meeting collectors. I like to try to produce inspiring work, evocative pieces that will stir memories, feelings of happiness and nostalgia, happy childhoods, like a forgotten scent caught in passing, in the same way that Mabel Lucie Attwell and Beatrix Potter's tales inspired me when I was a child. Money has never been a driving force for me, I will turn down work if it doesn't "fit". My friends at Washing ton Green are always telling me I could make a fortune, but I always remember what Kit Williams said to me - "You have to know how much is enough". It is such a valuable piece of advice to me. I don't work to commission any more, so all of my output is licensed in one way or another, and I make sure that every piece I create is special for the buyer, and has value".

Does she have a Fan club? Well, Linda admits to receiving letters of support and admiration from her collectors. Linda is far too modest to admit these are FANS!!

Is there a product that she definitely wouldn't want to see her cats on? "I like to keep a consistent high quality standard. My phrase is "Go for highest standard possible". Now I am working in 3D again, a different discipline is necessary but the same attention to detail is paramount, perhaps even more so. The models must look perfect, in expression, form and colour. Border Fine Arts have reproduced them beautifully. I check every stage of the process. I always design new work for new product, rather than recycle and reapply old designs". I'm warmed to hear that Linda is so open to design suggestions from Washington Green- refreshing for an artist in my experience.

Some artists are terrified of losing control when their work becomes licensed. So, what's it like being part of the Washington Green family? Linda's viewpoint is again refreshing and encouraging……
"It's brilliant. We have a great working relationship going back many years. I met Paul Green and Glyn Washington at The Halcyon Gallery in Birmingham, when I first took work to them 20 years ago (The Halcyon is now situated in the prestigious International Conference Centre, (ICC) in Birmingham.) Glyn and I get together to discuss new ideas, what would work well both commercially and aesthetically, how it fits within the licensing programme. We have a similar sense of humour. He doesn't understand why I don't grab every licensing opportunity!
"Washington Green have a nurturing relationship - they have steered my career upwards" Linda explains. "I'm happy to be the artist and I couldn't do what they do. I have always been given lots of respect and leeway. I'm not given targets and deadlines and the respect between us is completely mutual". Linda's work is licensed through Applejack in the USA.

Linda's latest work, her book "A Tale of two Kitties", is her finest yet. The book, published in June 2001, follows the adventures of Agatha Cat and her daughter Jessica on a journey to see the wonders of the world. It's lavishly illustrated, and written by Michael Haines. It's hilarious. Linda presented me with a signed copy of the book. The work is the result of two years research, followed by one years solid graft. And oh, it's fabulous. It's a rich detailed tapestry of everything that is Linda, with a little bit more. I wondered, did she very run out of ideas?
"No! I have too many of them, too much inspiration, too much research waiting. My scrap books are full for future projects!"

Sounds great! So, what are the ambitions for LJS and her cats?
"One of my dreams is a type of gallery, in a period house, with my own textiles, clothes, jewellery, and painted furniture, and things for the garden". Her own house reflects this desire perfectly. It is decorated in cool colours, blues, greens, creams and aquas, the kind that the style mafia would in their ignorance call New England. - I call it pure Cornwall. Linda's signature colour is a pale cerulean blue; she also dresses in it. Darkness is out - light floods into her home through the conservatory that stretches the entire length of the house. Her studio has French windows that lead into the conservatory, which is filled with pelargoniums, Lloyd Loom furniture and her favourite collection at the moment - wrought iron pieces, painted LJS blue, as I've decided to call it.

Her professional palette, as with every artist who has a complete understanding of colour, is simple, using only a few key pigments to tone and shade (Victorian artist Helen Allingham was said to use just nine colours). She works at a small table in her studio, which with typical self-effacement Linda prefers to call her workroom, which itself demonstrates her unique sense of control and order within her unique eclectic style. Collections of her beaded bags, 30's hats, and craqueleur furniture are displayed throughout her home (Linda has restored many of these pieces herself), cheek by jowl with junk shop finds. Linda also makes her own exquisite handbags - based on denim jeans, they are resplendent with lace, beads, patchwork and feathers. Huge, richly coloured silk shawls and saris bedeck the windows, with antique French perfume bottles clustered on window ledges. Non of Linda's art is on display in her home. More LJS modesty? Linda states that she prefers simple, strong statements requiring attention - that's her excuse!!

Where do I see my friend? I think Linda could become the next Barbara Hulanicki; from her beginnings as a fashion illustrator in the 1960's, she grew the renowned Biba brand in fashion and home furnishings, and now designs magnificent international hotel interiors in her personal Art Deco style. Linda's attitude to her art can only ensure that her work continues to have a huge market, to be highly collectable and can only grow in stature. Here is one woman whose sum of her parts is larger than the whole. I am privileged to have her as a friend and an inspiration. And I can't wait to see what she does next……….