New painting in progress

 Generally, most wildlife paintings fall in to two categories. Either the animal is the main focus or the animal is secondary to the landscape. My paintings usually fall in the former group, however, sometimes there are places which really speak to me. 

This spot in South Africa was a good climb. Our guide wanted to show us very old large pots used by the bushman to store grain. My husband and I were eager to make the trek to this remote spot on top of a rock plateau. Once there, the view was outstanding. The pottery was much larger than we thought it would be and there were ropes and nets still lying nearby in the covered large rock indentation. 

Sometimes to get from one covered chamber to the next we had to crawl

Checking out the pots

Kneeling beside them

One of the views

In one of the deep caves under a rock ledge, our guide looked in to see if there were any bats to show us. Seconds after he peeked inside with a flashlight, he leapt back and grabbed his gun (pointing it at the small cave entrance.) A large shape had leapt over his head! The only thing that big would have been a leopard. Once the guide deemed it was safe we looked inside the cave and noticed there were many daylight exits, one about 20 feet up with rock ledges all the way. We never saw the leopard but I associate this rock plateau with him and he provides the inspiration for the painting, even though the focus is on the landscape.

For this painting I am going big (at least for me.) The painting is 48" X 32".

Detail