Babirusa

This week my nature painting group painted the Babirusa. This remarkable curly tusked pig is found nowhere else in the world except in undisturbed rain forests of Sulawesi. Sulawesi is Indonesia's fourth largest island (175,000 km2). It is something of a "forgotten island" in that the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra receive much more attention from conservationists. However Sulawesi has an amazing diversity of totally unique species, of which the Babirusa is probably the most enigmatic.

The Babirusa is amazing in a number of ways. Firstly the tusks are the upper canine teeth, which in males grow upwards out of the snout and curl round towards the forehead. Further the Babirusa fight by rearing up on their hind legs and "dance" - it is quite amazing to see this in the wild apparently.

The unique Babirusa and the Nantu Forest are facing grave threats from destructive forest clearance and also illegal poaching for their meat. They face a real risk of extinction in the near future, given that their total world population is only about 5000 individuals, yet they are poorly known about worldwide. The Babirusa's tusks have in fact inspired artists from long ago, being featured in Balinese artwork.

I was actually inspired by these fascinating 40,000 year old babirusa cave paintings  to create my own!

Modern Cave Painting of a Babirusa, mixed media

I actually started the painting with two pigs' heads superimposed over each other with one upside down (hence the double set of tusks) and the image then morphed into a Babirusa hybrid. Here's my Modern Cave Painting of a Babirusa, mixed media (gesso, watercolor, alcohol ink, colored pencil, pastels).


Linking up with Paint Party Friday!


Happy Painting!

Little Yummy Hummingbird

I am part of an online Nature Painting Challenge Group. Each week we take inspiration from a photograph of an endangered species to create inspirational artwork to create awareness of the animals' plight.

This week's topic was the Saw-billed hermit (hummingbird, Ramphodon naevius) feeding on a large torch ginger (Etlingera elatior). This hummingbird is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil and the largest of its hummingbirds. But sadly, he is considered near threatened because of the status of the Atlantic Forest. This forest is under serious threat as 93% of it has been destroyed. The large cities along Brazil's coast, urban sprawl and agricultural interests are the main causes.

I had fun creating a loose work of art with alcohol inks on yupo paper. It was such fun as always!

I am linking up with Paint Party Friday so come on and join in the fun. The hummingbird painting is available as a print, cushion cover, mug etc at Redbubble. It is also available as a silk scarf from the Art of Where.

Happy Painting!

Little Owl

I have made an amazing discovery! My mind is blown by my experiments with alcohol inks. I have been keen to try these for a while and I was not dissapointed. I decided to just go with the flow and tap into my imagination. I knew that you can't really use these inks on porous surfaces to I grabbed some see-through packaging I had lying around and just slipped some white paper inside as the backdrop.

Using a straw I blew the inks across the shiny surface, causing some intriguing effects. As I worked I felt as if I was watching one of those psychedelic lightshows from the sixties (such as the video above).

Every time you add a new color everything else shifts around, in slow motion. As I added different colors I saw an owl emerge.

 

I left my little owl like this in the end but it was hard to stop. Believe me, using alcohol inks is well and truly addictive because they move and drip around so much. The fumes are also pretty bad so I opened all the windows to clear my head. I believe in future I might try adding alcohol blending solution and I will also try working on Yupo paper.

Have you had any experiences working with alcohol inks? What kind of surface did you use?

Linking up to Paint Party Friday so link up and spread the love.