Monday, October 26, 2015

Circle of Animals

#1 - Year of the Sheep

 

It is a series of animal-portraits inspired by the zodiac cycle of 12 years with one year represented by an animal. Each year is dedicated to one animal and that year is called its year, such as 2015 – year of sheep.

Focusing on the wildlife aspect of this cycle, I made 12 animal portraits. All paintings are of the same size and are meant to be displayed together. I took my artistic license to “free” the animals from their barns, animal shelters, and collars & harnesses. They all are painted in their natural habitats and possibly with their mates or offsprings.

To generate interest, I tried to choose some variation among the representative animal. For example, for the year of tiger I chose white tiger over a traditional yellow/orange Siberian or Bengal tiger. It gave me a chance to explore deeper, learn better and possibly, pique the curiosity of the viewer before reading the caption/title.

This series is a part of project “Nature” where there are landscapes, seasons, and more animals.

I used my own photos as references that we took during our trips to zoos, farms, animal shelters, and parks. And I am so very thankful to the photographers who lent their support by allowing to use their ref photos without hassles of copyrights. They were invaluable resources for the subjects living in lands far and away. Despite my best efforts there are a few that have no available photo credit info. I will mention that along with the photos of paintings.

I will add photos to the album one by one and I invite you to guess which animal aligned with the year of dragon. :-)

Do let me know your thoughts. Enjoy!

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