Spotted Cats

A few days ago I took stock of my inventory of artwork. I sorted the 30+ paintings into three categories. The worst paintings went into the recycle bin. They will be sanded off, and I'll paint something else on top of them.
The best group of paintings will be left as is, and will be shipped to galleries or art shows as needed. The middle group of paintings will be put in line for a face lift. Two of those paintings have already gotten their new faces. They were both old paintings of exotic cats.

Several years ago I painted this Jaguar called, La Reina, 9x12". I liked the cat itself and the leaf litter beneath it's feet, but the rest of the composition did'nt quite work. Nobody liked this painting, but I did'nt know what to do about it.

Painting green leaves has always been a challenge for me. I have tried numerous shades of green but none of them look natural to me. The closest I can come is to lay down a base of green, then cover all or some of the leaf with a very thin glaze of red. Then highlight parts of the leaf with blue, white, or yellow.
This new vertical arrangement of branches and vines helps draw the viewer's eye to the Jaguar, and it looks much better to me.

I did'nt make any changes to the cat itself.

Although I like the cat in this Ocelot, 8x10", painting, the setting looks contrived to me.

First I added a series of glazes to various parts of the painting, and then reworked, or added leaves. The improvement is dramatic to me, although I dont know how well that shows up in the photo. The differences in color saturation between the photos has more to do with differing light conditions between the original photos, and new photos.

This painting really makes me want to do another Ocelot painting. I have a good idea in my head.

Since this post is about spotted cats, I'll include two paintings that I did not alter. This 11x14" painting called Two Leopards is hanging in Gary's gallery in Homer. If it has'nt already sold, I expect it to sell by the end of summer.

This 12x16" Cheetah painting called, Cat in the Grass, sold last summer. I can only hope that the Jaguar and Ocelot paintings will sell soon.

The Swan and the Gull

The photo above is a detail of the latest new painting.

It all started out with an 8x10" gray gesso board, which I sanded smooth. Then I sketched out two Trumpeter Swans that I photographed at nearby Sixmile Lake on the airforce base.
I painted the top and the bottom dark blue, while the middle layer of the board was a medium blue-gray.

Then I took an old toothbush and flicked on a fine spray of watery, pale gray paint on top of the middle layer.

Next I blocked in some base tones on the swan's bodies.

I tried to blend some blue-gray with warmer buff tones into the foundation of the swan's bodies. This is a technique that I have attempted to perfect many times when painting white birds, but it needs further refinement. By the time I get it right I will lose interest in the subject. And so it goes with just about everything in my life.

Next I added whitish surface feathers on the rear swan. I also added light highlights on it's beak.

A detail of it's head. You can see the light flecks from the toothbrush. They are less prominent in the actual painting.

I realized that the rear swan needed a thicker neck, and I added some light highlights on the front swan's body.

After refining the front swan's plummage, I added the swan's reflections in the water. I also put some pale washes across the middle level of the painting. Then I covered the whole painting with a thin glaze of burnt sienna. At this point I thought the painting was completed, so I signed it.

After a day I realized that the painting needed a few refinements. I brightened the intensity of the sunlit feathers, and added some light washes to obscure hard details of the swan's plummage. Now it's done.

Last year I painted this seascape, Wildscape, 16x20". I know it will never sell but I figured I could at least improve it a little.

First I worked on the gull a little, and repainted it's legs. Then I put a pink wash on top of the background to obscure it somewhat. I also brightened some of the highlights of the sea foam.

A detail of the gull. Is it any better? Is it finished? Who knows?

The Last of Gary's Photos

Another photo from Semliki Toro that I forgot to include earlier. R.L.T. stands for Rueppell's Long-tailed. The bird's name has recently been changed to Rueppell's Glossy Starling.

A White-thighed Hornbill near the Budongo Forest in Western Uganda.

Although I dont know the official name of these lizards, I called them Orange- headed Agamas. This individual was near Murchison.

A big croc.

Some elephants in Murchison got excited when we approached them too fast for their comfort. Their excitement was too scary for my comfort as well.

A Red-necked Falcon.

Grasshopper Buzzards were more approachable than most raptors.

I'm envious of Gary's nice shot of a Palm-nut Vulture. What a great bird!

The hippo seemed oblivious to this jacana pecking at it's head.

Gary's photo of the very rare Egyptian Plover.

These photos were taken only yards from the hippo with the jacana.

We only saw this one lion on the trip, but we got to see it on two consecutive days.

On the first day we saw it, we were standing out of the car looking at a pair of Grey Kestrels. The lion was about  a quarter mile away, staring intently at us. It soon hid itself in some thick scrub. The next day we approached in the car and the lion all but ignored us.

I'll end this with a photo I shot with Gary's camera in the capital city of Kampala. I guess President Obama has a back-up plan in case that president thing does'nt pan out. Tom is on the left, Gary on the right.

Gary Photographs Murchison

Murchison Falls National Park lies along the banks of the Nile River. It was the last, and best place that we explored on our Uganda adventure. It was also the hottest place we visited. Gary shot the photo above from our campground just outside the park's boundaries.

There were elephants that seemed to hang out all day just across the river from out camp. Later we crossed the river on a ferry and stayed even closer to the elephants. We had some stressful encounters with them in the days to come.

We took two boat tours along the banks of the river to see the abundant wildlife from up close.

We saw these Rock Pratincoles just below the falls. They are an unusual species of bird.

The park proper looks like typical African Savannah habitat. We were amazed by the abundance of wildlife in the grasslands. Like these Uganda Kobs.

Murchison is the only place that we saw the odd, Jackson's Hartebeest.

These incredible beauties were abundant in Murhison. It is the only place where we saw giraffes. They are very photogenic.

Oribis are very abundant and petit. They were also unique to Murchison, at least on our trip.

The males have short, but sharp horns.

Both Gary and I got similar photos of this particular group of Cape Buffalo. I like this angle. We were in a small roadcut, and the buffalo were just above us.

The noble beast.

These impressive, and slightly grotesque ground hornbills were quite common in Murchison.

This Yellow-billed Kite was actually in Semliki Toro, but I forgot to include it there. It was perched about 8 ft off the ground in a tree growing about 3ft off the road. We pulled alongside and shot many photos. The bird never flew. Yellow-billed Kites are a form of the widespread, Black Kite.

We only saw this one Woodchat Shrike on the trip. It breeds in europe.

We also saw only one or two of these wintering shrikes.

Gary's Photos, Bigodi and Beyond

Although I posted a few similar photos as this one, African Grey Parrots are an awsome treat to see in the wild. It's certainly worth a second look.

The same goes for the Great Blue Turaco. We also saw a Black-billed Turaco in the Bigodi Wetlands.

The Bigodi Wetlands was the only place that we saw, Central African Red Colobus Monkeys.

Africa's largest vulture, the Lappet-faced Vulture.

From Bigodi we headed west, then north again. The photo above shows a typical highway in Uganda. Bad roads, full of livestock.

Of course the roads were full of pedestrians as well. There is a great lack of public transportation in Uganda, and most people can't afford even the few pennies that local mini buses charge. They just walk. Even children do their part, hauling water daily.
The scene above illustrates why it took so long to drive, even relatively short ditances. We averaged about 20 kmph. We greeted thousands of people per day as we drove along, and gave many people rides. Some did'nt ask for a ride, they just got in. Everyone was friendly.

We saw many White-browed Coucals on the trip. This individual was in Semliki Toro Wildlife Refuge.

Semliki Toro was also where we went on a Chimpanzee trek. We paid $50.oo for the vehicle entry fee, $30.oo per person, per day, park entry fee, $20.oo a day guide fee, and $30.oo per person Chimpanzee Permit.
That's all on top of car rental, and  fuel, lodging, meals, etc. I'm still paying for that trip. The most expensive vacation I have ever taken. Certainly worth every penny.

This chimp ponders the meaning of life from it's leafy perch in a big tree.

This chimp is content to play with a Tamarind seed before eating it. Gary managed to get much better chimp photos than I did.

Semliki Toro was where we first saw the beautiful Red-throated Bee-eaters.

It is also the only place where we saw the wonderful, Red-headed Weavers. Too bad the light was so bad on that day. We really loved our stay in Semliki Toro.