My name is Becky McEwen
and I am a 23-year-old freelance artist from New Zealand.
I am an animal lover, always have been. When I was a young girl my Uncle Stu and Aunty Sandra would always buy me an animal encyclopedia or some kind of educational animal book for my birthday and I would study every page intently – it was always the most exciting gift to receive. I think this helped grow my love and appreciation of animals and it might just be the reason why I feature most of my artwork around them today.
I received a scholarship grant to study traditional art at Whitecliffe College of Art and Design in 2010, which is where I received my certificate of Art and Design. I later went on to study a Diploma in 3D animation at Media Design School in Auckland and worked partway towards my Bachelor of Creative Technologies there. I am currently on a break from study and working interdependently on my own projects as well as freelance work. I am hoping to be putting on an exhibition towards the end of the year (the fox piece will be an exhibition work)
CatNap was the piece I put in for the International Cat Art Competition. My original concept of CatNap was based on looking at my cat Dexter lying in a really awkward position sleeping.
Then I started thinking, what would it look like if one cat was overlapping the other? How would they fit together? I didn’t do a lot of planning for it, I tried to get it onto paper as fast as I could before I lost my concept. I was really happy with the finished product and I think it was perfect to have the work as a circular shape like a cat curled up asleep.
I have one pet cat, his name is Dexter and he is a rescue kitten. He often sits on my desk while I’m drawing (Or on my artwork!)
