Cheetah:

Jan and James had a wonderful encounter during their trip to Tanzania with three cheetahs. They were most likely grown cub siblings whose mother had just "kicked them out on their own". This young male was very curious and came over to the car where he first put his feet on the hood, and then turned and grabbed the mirror. Jan and James spent over 2 hours with them, first photographing them awakening in the morning light, to then following them to watch them catch a gazelle - to then watching as it was stolen from them by a hyena!

James and Jan got up close a personal with the subject of this painting!

Jan and James were up at sunrise looking for cheetahs that they had spotted the day before.

They found them laying in deep red out grass. The sun was just barely peeking over the trees when they spotted them and they were just starting to wake up. Jan was silently chanting "Please get up, Please get up!"

Yeah! The cheetahs not only got up, but they walked around close to the vehicle, and as the male was passing by Jan he was back lit in beautiful glowing golden light. The seed tops of the grass were absolutely iridescent! As Jan snapped away with her camera she KNEW she wanted to do this painting, and she immediately began painting it in her head.

Jan decided to try an oil painters technique which is to apply a lot of colors very wet and then to blend together on the painting surface. Because Acrylic dries very fast this is difficult, particularly on a big painting - but - since this is a small painting and it was a humid day, Jan felt she could give it a try.

Jan then blends the wet colors together with a foam sponge.

Here the background has been blended and the outline of the cheetah transferred and masked out with the artist masking fluid. Because Jan knew the surface was going to be smooth from the technique of the sponge, she didn't mask the cheetah out before hand.

The light was shining through the tops of seed heads of grass and weeds - to simulate this random pattern Jan spatters white and yellow paint across the painting with an old toothbrush.

To create more organic shapes of seed heads Jan uses a splayed out old brush.

In this photo the grass behind the cheetah has been completed and the masking materials removed from the cat in preparation to starting him.

The cheetah is almost completed.

The finishing touches of the white tip on the cheetah's tail and the grasses in front of him have been added to complete the painting. "GOLDEN HOUR" 8 x 16".