Archive for the ‘Animals’ Category

MORE CHOOKS

April 21, 2010

After playing around with watercolor and gouache for a while, I somehow drifted on to acrylic and ink in an effort to capture the wild, manic character of these killer chickens. I always took chickens for granted. It’s not till you start to draw them that you come to realize – behind all that innocent scratching and clucking lies a vicious, terrifying bird of prey!

Here are three more.

“Leghorn Watching” - Gouache, Acrylic, Ink, Watercolor and Charcoal.

“Rhode Island Red – Best of Breed” - Gouache, Acrylic, Ink, Watercolor and Charcoal.

“Black Australorp Considering”- Gouache, Acrylic, Ink, Watercolor and Charcoal.

WATERCOLOR CHICKEN

April 15, 2010

Over the past couple of months I have been busy working on a new book, which means I am madly leaping from one subject to another. Somehow I ended up choosing a chicken to demonstrate the different qualities of watercolor and Gouache. I hope to have the book finished before the end of the year. A step by step guide to painting this chicken will feature in book. It combines clear washes of watercolor and the opaque flatness of gouache to get that fantastic contrast between glowing transparency and flat, velvety gouache.

This type of subject is a lot of fun, I love the contrast between fine detail and loose abstraction. The face of the chicken leaves nothing to the imagination, but as the eye moves down the neck, things get a little out of control – just like a chicken tearing around in a chicken coop.

French Ultramarine Blue, Permanent Alizarin, Windsor Red, and Quinacridone Gold  with White Gouache provided all the necessary colors.

A few one stroke brushes and a rigger took care of the detail and the 1/2 inch bristle brush made all the mess.

The book should be available towards the end of the year. As soon as it’s out I will put a link on my website

TILPA PUB

November 14, 2009

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From Broken Hill we took the road to Wilcannia then followed the Darling river to the little town of Tilpa. Tilpa pub doesn’t see too many visitors, mainly passing shearers and local farmers.

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The pub walls are scrawled with names from the past 40 years (or whenever texta colors were invented) I stayed at the pub 25 years ago and it hasn’t changed a bit.

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While we were there, discussion around the bar was centered on the pet sheep overdue for shearing. There was a shearer at the bar with a set of 12 volt clippers, so it was decided to shear the sheep then and there. Coaxed to the front of the ute by a handful of twisties, the poor old sheep was flipped over and shorn before she even knew what happened.

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After all the excitement, another handful of twisties for being a well behaved sheep.

ACROSS THE NT BORDER

November 8, 2009

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Approaching the NT border towards Docker River, the country changes into a series of spectacular ranges.  Reading Herbert Basedows 1903 journal of exploration through this area made it all the more fascinating. There were no tracks and the journey took him 8 months with a team of 18 camels.

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All along the Great Central Road are herds of wild camels. This old fellow was standing under a shady tree just outside Docker River.

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Approaching the NT WA border through a cracked and bug splattered windscreen.

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We camped the first night back in the Northern Territory between sandhills with a great view of Kata Tjuta (The Olgas).

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Ayers Rock (Uluru) is an awesome sight. Photos are useless, it is so massive – the only way to appreciate it is to visit it.

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These strange characters, walking up to a viewing platform near Kata Tjuta, wore bags over their heads to annoy the flies!

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Around 50 kilometers east of Uluru is Mt Connor. It is like the poor cousin to Uluru, given just a passing glance thanks to it’s famous neighbour.

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I climbed to the top of a high sandridge to get a photograph of Mt Connor. In the distance to the north I could see a large salt lake half filled with water. An unusual sight in Central Australia.

We traveled East to the Stuart Highway then turned South through gathering storm clouds to South Australia.

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CAMEL IN WATERHOLE

November 7, 2009

The Great Central Road skirts the Gibson and Great Victoria Deserts so water is pretty scarce. There are, however, a number of rockholes with permanent water scattered throughout the region. Whenever we saw one marked on the map we would seek it out with the aid of a GPS.

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Some we found contained the bones of camels.

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As we approached one of these waterholes we spotted a dingo running away. We didnt think much about it until we reached the hole and found this poor old camel trapped and struggling.

A steel frame covering the hole to keep animals out had somehow been collapsed and pushed aside

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He was exhausted and badly cut from fighting to extract himself.

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If we left him he would have soon become a meal for the dingoes. We decided to try and pull him out of the rockhole. The caravan was unhooked and the car moved close to the waterhole. I managed to throw a rope over his neck and pull a snatch strap around him.

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With the car in low range we slowly hauled him out. I expected him to lay there for a while recovering but as soon as I undid the shackle attaching the rope to the car he jumped to his feet, shook himself, then took off.

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He was last seen disappearing into the desert with a snatch strap and rope. I followed him for  five minutes expecting the rope to fall off, but by that time he was half a kilometre away so I left him to it.  A good excuse to return and search for the strap one day.

MOUNTAINS OF IRON

October 1, 2009

KARIJINI NATIONAL PARK

www.johnlovett.com (opens in a new window)

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The Karijini landscape is dominated by the Hamersley Ranges. These are probably the oldest mountains on earth, the rocks dating back 2,500 million years. Driving through the Hamersleys is unique and beautiful. The undulating hills are covered with spinifex and broken by exposed weathered faces of deep red rock.

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Cutting through the landscape are numerous gorges. Some are accessed by a short walk, others require climbing and scrambling over rocks and ledges, and some can only be reached with ropes and climbing equipment.

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Some of the gorges narrow down to passages just wide enough for a person to squeeze through

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Others are broad and open with clear pools at the bottom

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Looking down into the deeper gorges is an awesome sight. The surrounding country is undulating and fairly unspectacular, but the gorges seem to drop way below the surrounding landscape.

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Passing sculptors have installed some impressive structures using just rocks and gravity.

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Waterfalls and waterholes are found throughout the gorges

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The water is usually freezing cold but, somehow, backpackers seem to be tolerant to near freezing water

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Whistling Kite – Pentax K20D 18 -250mm lens

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Scattered through the gorges are veins of blue asbestos. The Wittenoom and Yampire gorges have been closed because of the high concentration of asbestos

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KARIJINI VISITORS CENTRE

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Architect John Nicholes designed the Karijini Visitors Centre to weather into the landscape. Most of the exterior of the structure is built from heavy welded steel panels. These are acid washed to rust, echoing the iron ore outcrops of the landscape.

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It is an impressive building that also hints at the rusted remnants of the areas pastoral history.

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Old rusted Pilbra sheepyards, built from flattened oil drums

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Power is provided by a large solar array with a thumping big diesel generator, waiting for a rainy day.

BEAGLE BAY / CAPE LEVEQUE

September 23, 2009
The Coast north of Broome looks amazing with turquoise water and red desert sand punctuated by mangroves. We decided to drive up to Beagle Bay, Cape Leveque and One Arm Point to have a look at the settlements and landscape.
The red desert sand is great to look at, but makes a really lousey road. From Broome to Beagle bay is non stop corrugations covered by a central ridge of sand and high sloping sand sholders, so keeping in a straight line was a bit of a challenge at times.
Beagle Bay is a sleepy little Aboriginal Community with an amazing church built by German Missionaries in 1917 The alter and much of the decoration inside is made from thousands of mother of pearl shells.
One Arm Point is another small Aboriginal Community with fishing shelters built along the waterfront
They are watched over by a pair of extremely laid back guard dogs. The one on the left could wag his tail slowly – that was about as active as they became.
Dog on holidays
Pentax K20D 500mm mirror lens
It was a lot of fun photographing this Osprey feeding its young chick not far from our camp at Gambanan, near Cape Leveque. The mother fed  the chick for almost half an hour, just as the sun was going down. The light was perfect and the bird wasn’t disturbed by me, perched among the rocks with a tripod and camera. After she had fed the fish to the chick, tiny piece by tiny piece, she carefully picked up all the scraps that had fallen beside the nest and gave them to the baby. Once the feeding had finished she mad a sharp squeek, the baby sat down in the nest and she took off.
Fifteen minutes later I was back at our camp. I heard another loud squeek and there was the mother Osprey in the tree beside us. (Dead tree on left)
Pentax K20D 500mm mirror lens
She had another large chunk of fish she spent the next 20 minutes eating. Just as it got dark her mate joined her.
When I woke at 5:00 next morning they were still there in the tree.

www.johnlovett.com

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The Coast north of Broome looks amazing with turquoise water and red desert sand punctuated by mangroves. We decided to drive up to Beagle Bay, Cape Leveque and One Arm Point to have a look at the settlements and landscape.

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The red desert sand is great to look at, but makes a really lousy road. From Broome to Beagle bay is non stop corrugations covered by a central ridge of sand and high sloping sand shoulders, so keeping in a straight line was a bit of a challenge at times.

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Beagle Bay is a sleepy little Aboriginal Community with an amazing church built by German Missionaries in 1917.  The alter and much of the decoration inside is made from thousands of mother of pearl shells.

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One Arm Point is another small Aboriginal Community with fishing shelters built along the waterfront

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They are watched over by a pair of extremely laid back guard dogs. The one on the left could wag his tail slowly – that was about as active as they became.

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Dog on holidays

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Pentax K20D 500mm mirror lens

It was a lot of fun photographing this Osprey feeding its chick at Gambanan, near Cape Leveque. The mother fed  the baby for almost half an hour, just as the sun was going down. The light was perfect and the bird wasn’t disturbed by me, perched among the rocks with a tripod and camera.

After she had fed the fish to the chick, she carefully picked up all the scraps that had fallen beside the nest and gave them to the baby. Once the feeding had finished she made a sharp squeak, the baby sat down in the nest and she took off.

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Fifteen minutes later I was back at our camp. I heard another loud squeak and there was the mother Osprey in the tree beside us. (Dead tree on left)

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Pentax K20D 500mm mirror lens

She had another large chunk of fish and spent the next 20 minutes eating. Just as it got dark her mate flew in and joined her.

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When I woke at 5:00 next morning they were still there in the tree.


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