Pastel on Supertooth paper         ORIGINAL SOLD

54 X 75 cm.

Nothing much on my mind when I undertook the battle to turn this idea into a decent pastel artwork. Often that is the way with art....the idea carries us along and the reasoning behind it only becomes clear once it is finished. I met this fellow in South Africa and loved the latent power in his near presence (the fact I was in a fully open game drive vehicle may have had something to do with my respect for his proximity and power just a few metres away).

In any case this started out to be mostly high key values of whites and greys and after 5 days had turned into this!!!.... almost totally low-key values which happens of its own accord on occasion. The path of an artist is frequently one of embarking upon a journey where the ultimate destination is unknown. Maybe it is not as fundamentally important as the actual journey of learning and connecting with your inner self.

Lately I have been quietly enraged at the cavalier treatment dished up to our natural world by so much of big business and governments. It is this quiet power which can drive revolution and also important change in the way humans choose to do things. Behind it all is the one simple truth.... we are either a part of the solution or ipso facto we are part of the problem.... there is no get out of jail clause in life and neither is there a fence to sit on. Change is coming......because nature will bring it. It is up to us all to act and act well for the entire planet......do what we can.... whatever that may be......anything is better than the nothing that seems so prevalent at the moment. Maybe what we need is a quiet grumble from a lion to convince us to move.