Lion:

Jan just returned from another whirlwind trip to Kenya. This time she and a friend stayed in a camp outside of the Mara called Serian. It was a wonderful camp, having the feeling of staying in a friend's home rather than a commercial camp. Here Jan can be seen in front of her spacious tent. www.serian.net

The camp has hired local Maasai as guides. These guides are highly trained - Jonathan, Jan's guide, is a silver medal guide. Because this camp is outside park boundaries vehicles are allowed off road and you are allowed out of the vehicle. Here Jan is with Jonathan scouting game from a high vantage point.

Serian has donated facilities for a lion research project called "Living with Lions". You can read more about the research at www.lionconservation.org. Here is the researcher - Sara - watching one of the members of the "Marsh Pride". She kept telling Jan about a HUGE male lion that was in the area that they called Caesar. Jonathan searched for days for this elusive animal until Jan started to believe he was just a hoax!

FINALLY they found him - but - he was fast asleep - doing what lions do best. They waited for over an hour and then - HOORAH! He raised his head, and the evening light hit his mane and Jan was in heaven!!!

Jan is going to try a more "painterly" technique. She is going to loosely block in the background then apply the lion over it. Here she has started the grasses, paying special attention to the where the light is coming from.

Because the lion is backlit, and the light literally "glows" through the mane, Jan has lightly blocked in the lion and then has painted pure white along the edge of the mane so that she can apply pure clean color washes that will capture this glow.

Jan has applied pure washes of color - oranges and siennas to the white area of the mane. She has also transferred the drawing using white artist transfer paper so that she can began to detail out the lion.

Jan has chosen not to do her "drawing" of the hair coat. Since the lion's coat is so short, she is just jumping right into detailing it out. She is also beginning work on the mane.

Jan has begun detailing out the mane, this time using more of a "drawing" technique with a fine brush to do the hairs. She has also started laying in the base coats of the body and paws.

Work on the grass has begun. Jan plans on having quite a bit of grass over the lions paws and legs so she won't be detailing them out much more. She is using an old brush that she "splays" out to work at creating the feeling of deep clumps of grass.

Work is continuing on the grasses; now they are being pulled up over the lion. It's important in painting wildlife to make the animal part of the environment by painting grass, branches etc. over part of the animal to "anchor" him into the habitat. Otherwise the animal can look like an after thought that is "pasted" on. Especially in a situation like this, where the lion is lying deep in the grasses. The finishing touches will be grasses that are longer and also being hit by the sun as the mane is.

Here is the finished painting - "FIRE IN THE GRASS" 12 x 12". You can see how Jan created the finishing "touches" by doing the longer grasses in the foreground whose seed heads are also being highlighted by the late evening light. This painting is for sale and will premiere at the Bennington Center for the Arts - AMERICAN ARTISTS ABOARD. This is in invitational show and will feature a variety of artists doing many different subjects from around the world. The show hangs August 8 - September 13, 2009 in beautiful Bennington, Vermont. www.benningtoncenterforthearts.org.