Last week my venture through the travel photos brought me to the impressive Temple of Karnak in Egypt where I was particularly enamoured with the wall of carved drawings showing botanic flora & fauna. These illustrations date back to 1425BC and were at the behest of Thutmosis3, who had discovered the plants & wildlife of Syria so fascinating ....as his troops were killing off the locals!
Such was the range of interesting plant shape that I felt one weekly art project was not enough, so I returned to this source of inspiration again this week & began by doing even more drawings.
After a couple of hours taking visual notes, I recognised that 4 sheets of A4 should provide me with enough data to create a composition!
That though, was the hard part. I wanted to cram as much in as possible, but I also wanted a combination of plants that would look aestheticly pleasing. I've been looking at a lot of Still Life paintings lately & that composing of elements is so important; various heights, shapes & a sense of flow with a quirky spot of interest here & there...all adds up to a formula that works
Then it was time to get the magic happening & let the cutting back begin. Here's how it changed over the ensuing hour.
This is my end result & I am very pleased with it. The style is so different from my usual work which of course, keeps me interested & engaged in what I'm doing.
I've loved every minute of this focused period of time in this part of the Karnak Temple. Next time I will look elsewhere in this temple complex for inspiration though. I hope your own creative adventures are exciting you too.
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