As you know I love a challenge in creating artwork and painting pictures.
I had a thought a few weeks ago about how much I love painting water, and I love painting quirky animals, so what about putting them together in a painting with fire as well, I liked the idea of the animals being sort of mystical and sort of hinting at familiar creatures without them being specific animals, or birds, or reptiles. I liked the idea of the painting being dark, with lots of black, as that would make the fire stand out more. I liked the idea of the flame being partly orange and yellow, and partly blue like a hot flame.
I knew the painting would be in acrylics on canvas, as that gave me the depth of strong colour I needed for the bright pale colours against the dark of the black background . And it gave me the best freedom to create the creatures textures of fur, scales, feathers.
I know there are animals in there that resemble various quirky mystical creatures, and as I painted the picture I wanted to think of a suitable title for it…. I had thought of various animal names and had made a list of some of them and I wanted the title to reflect the strange creatures that are in it.. and it was only on the last couple of hours (of many many hours work!) that I came up with a title that I thought the most apt…. The painting is in acrylics on canvas (measuring 20 x 16 inches) and is called ‘Realm of the fire bellied water baboon’.
I absolutely love it…..!