Colin Self was born in Rackheath, Norfolk and attended Norwich School of Art and the Slade School of Art 1961-3, where he met and received encouragement from David Hockney and Peter Blake. He was influenced by Pop Art but his work always explored edgy themes of life in a post-war nuclear world. After London and US he moved back to Norfolk and later taught at Norwich School of Art.
The Power & Beauty Series, Volume One was published by Editions Alecto in 1968-9 and was about ‘images which have haunted me…(and) have seemed complete and impregnable’. The source for Cat and Cockerel was the book Hutchinson’s Animals of all Countries (1923-5) which Self had been given as a child in the 1950s.