Fidget the Weasel to star on TV

A camera crew from The One Show are in my studio today filming Fidget, the weasel I took in as a tiny kit after he was found abandoned in York last year.

Followers of my blog will know that I have spent the last few years studying weasels in the wild for my paintings. I've had surveillance cameras trained on a family of wild weasels living in my garden and have monitored their behaviour closely. The information I collate informs my paintings.

Weasel Wall, painting by Robert E Fuller.

When Fidget arrived he was too small to release into the wild and I grew so fond of him I ended up keeping him. He keeps me company as I paint but he is so active that I've found myself building him things to climb up to keep him busy. Watching him test his strength and agility is also important to me since I get the opportunity to see how his muscles move and to photograph him in a variety of poses - these photographs make up my background studies for future paintings.

Above you can see him slipping behind the paintings in my studio - and knocking one off! And below is his 'spider-weasel' moment when he sheers up the wall and then balances on top of my paintings!



To really put him to the test I built him this maze. He was very quick to learn when I tested him out this week. They are really very intelligent animals. I built the maze out of wood and then pushed a mixture of concrete and sawdust into the spaces with my hands.  Here he is just coming through.

The maze then leads on to more obsctacles made out of hamster tubing and over a bicycle wheel and onto a slalam.

I hope he manages to complete the whole obstacle course for the TV crew today. I will let you know when its due to be screened.