This is the final set of five wildlife artworks created from macro photographs of the same old metal gate. The weathered paintwork on this gate has served me well, with 20 artworks created from less than 30 minutes of photography. I still expect it to get painted over at some point but it has stayed more-or-less the same for the three years I have known it and I always enjoy passing it even if I am not close enough to see that wonderful weathering. It's like a secret that nobody else knows about but is actually hiding in plain site.
For the first time in ages there wasn't a car parked in front of it when I passed by recently so I managed to get some better photographs of what it really looks like.
From across the road it just looks like an eyesore, the ugliest part of a not very inspiring neighborhood.
Crossing the road for a closer look it still doesn't particularly grab your attention for its aesthetic potential.
From a couple of metres away it starts to look like it could be of some interest but is still a bit of a mess.
It is only when you bend over for a proper look that the detail holding its beauty really begins to reveal itself.
These artworks are built on that detail.
Parrot Pair
This flaking green paint reminded me of foliage hence the choice of a bird you might expect to find in a forest. But then, whatever they are perching on has a straightness that suggests something man-made so in my mind this pair of parrots is hanging about in some lucky person's garden.
Sealions and Shearwater
Marine mammals can be so lithe and elegant in the water and yet so blobby on land! This makes them hard to stand out in my style of artwork that relies on silhouettes. Alert sealions with their necks out-stretched are an exception and actually a great shape to work with as their slug-like bodies merge into the land. This group is perhaps not immediately obvious but once noticed they pin this scene as coastal and all that flaky paint as enormous crashing waves. I enjoy tucking small animals away inside such images such as the solitary shearwater riding the wind.
Shark Window
I actually put a lot more work into this one than shows in this final version. I added many fish, a crab and an octopus within the paint layer with all the cracks in it. The idea was to have two layers: a coral reef habitat where the smaller beasts lives and the distant sharks out in the open water behind. It worked except that there was so much going on that the background itself was lost. I don't want people to only see the wildlife so I removed all those extras to give that cracking texture room to breath.
Turtle Reef
The colours and patterns in this background cried out to be a coral reef. The pattern also works well for a sea turtle as does the angle looking down from above. It is always tempting to add more things, such as a few fish, but as mentioned above I am trying hard to resist...
Two Caribou
Coming from Europe I usually think of these animals as reindeer but then that wouldn't rhyme with "two". They have lovely distinctive antlers that are quite sparse but large, which is just the kind of shape that works well in this style of artwork. I love the feel of this weathered paintwork as a cold mist rising with a wintry sun filtering through murky skies.
That is probably the last post I will make of the artwork that came out of this old gate. Next will be what came from an old corrugated metal fence...
These artworks and others are available as digital downloads through my Patreon page.
