I’ve stopped working on the rhino painting for now because I’m extremely excited for this next painting. This painting could very well be the beginning of paintings that give me true purpose in my life. So many different things are coming together and finding connections within these animal painting that I find it hard to contain the excitement.
Yesterday Pattie and I went to the Bishop museum here in Hawaii. A wonderful museum all about the natural history of the Hawaiian people. But what really made the visit worth it was when we sat down and talked with Manny at the Parley.tv exhibit. Not only did all three of us connect in our efforts of conservation but Manny also showed us how they have been pulling plastic from the ocean and upcycling it into useful object.
This is when I picked up a panel the exact same ratio, 1 by 2, that I’ve been working on for months. Everything clicked! I want to paint animals, specifically animals that are endangered and need our help most, and now I can attach yet another conservation aspect to it. I can paint animals, inform others of their plight, share the profit with conservation organization, PLUS, paint on a panel made of upcycled plastic while removing plastic from the ocean, helping animals in the sea in my backyard AND educate people on how they can get their plastics upcycled to support the efforts. It’s crazy awesome!
I was so excited that I spent a lot of time today working with an image and making a composition that is best as I can get it. Something that would represent the ocean well and the animals in need. I even took a photo of the plastic panel which has some crazy texture on it so that I could create the composition and see what it would look like to show some of the panel behind the oil paint.
I also wanted to show an example of how far I go to make my paintings look different from the original photo.
