LITTLE MISS MUFFET

There are so many light and interesting touches in this beautifully colored and bordered work. She sits in a formal garden of the 18th century, next to her faithful King Charles Spaniel. A suave little spider has come to “sit down beside her” — but perhaps this Miss Muffet will not be frightened away. Scott says: “The sheet music at her feet is a Tarantella, a popular dance of the period that, according to folklore, when danced wards off the effects of the venomous bite of a tarantula. Whether or not that’s true I don’t know, but it was a nice musical tie-in to the spidery theme I was painting.”