Weekend Distractions Part Two - updated

Sadly the grinding work was finished before the darkness descended so no photos folk ....

What I did spend a lot of time working on during the weekend were two works - one is a watercolour of a parliament of owls and the other is a Buddha.

I tend to get rather absorbed when painting if either it is going well or I have some dilemma to solve. I have been known to start working on a canvas early in the morning and then discover that it is late afternoon! Wasn't quite that bad this weekend but was close ...

Thought I would post a picture of the latter and show what I am trying to do.

I wanted this to be a 3 dimensional work rather than a flat painting so I have been adding layers and layers and layers of modelling paste. Have to wait for each layer to dry before I add the next.

It is at a stage now where I think I have added the last layer. What I will do once this is dry is to sand all the roughness out of the face and see how it looks.

My intention is to then paint the whole canvas black/brown except for the flower which will be shades of pink, a lotus flower.

Then I have gold leaf which I intend to put on the face, also on the high points of the textured sides.  In places it, hopefully, will rub off and in others be clearly visible. I want to give the whole canvas an aged look.

Will keep you posted.

Oh - guess I should give you a sneak peek of the owls too ....

I want to paint some kangaroo and camel heads; need to take a trip to one of the local wildlife parks and take heaps of photos, do some charcoal sketches, maybe even a few watercolour sketches. Might look at doing some other native animal heads - wombat, some of out more 'handsome' lizards like the Frilled Neck.

So now need to find an animal park that has a variety of them - the local one 5 mins away, Featherdale, has a lot of kangaroo, wallaby and plenty of birds but only a couple of emu. There is another at Pennant Hills, Koala Park but they specialise in Koala so not entirely sure what other animals have have and how many.

I know of another at Helensburgh, Symbio Wildlife Park that may have what I am looking for and one more at Ourimbah, The Reptile Park, so need to research which one has plenty of all the animals I need.  Not much use travelling 50kms,  forking out $25 or so only to find they have only one, or worse, none of the animals I am looking for.

Then I can take a trip down (or up) there through the week or on the weekend and get some work done.


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