Date: 2011
Technique: Oil on canvas
Size: 18 × 24 inches (46cm x 61cm)

Robert Bateman was my inspiration for this one, (though obviously I’m nowhere near his level). If you look at his work you’ll notice two things. First, that he always treats miscellaneous things like twigs, blades of grass, rocks, etc. as equally important to whatever animal he is painting. Many artists tend to fall into the trap of making the focal point of their paintings (wildlife for example) super detailed and beautiful, then kind of forgetting about the background. I’ve been guilty of this myself many times as you might have noticed. The second thing is that his backgrounds look like they are in the background. This is way more difficult than it sounds. In real life, the farther away an object, the more its colours fade to a neutral grey or bluish tint. Unless you’re paying attention, the phenomenon known as colour constancy will fool your brain into perceiving a colour as looking the same regardless of perspective or illumination. Again I’ve been guilty of this mistake many times, and end up painting my backgrounds with colours as vibrant and bright as the ones in the foreground. This is one of the main reasons why so many paintings end up looking flat.
Anyway I’m no Robert Bateman yet, but who knows, maybe someday he’ll invite me to his studio to chat?

I didn’t use a photo for this painting, but instead used the BBC’s Planet Earth TV series as a reference guide.