Recently I was asked to paint a special commission - a Red Deer - as a surprise gift / Birthday present from one good friend to another. I absolutely loved this job, worked with the client, researched the deer farm near Oberon NSW (where they are bred) and enjoyed creating a thoughtful composition that was meaningful to the client. I worked on this painting over many months, slowly building the colour and depth with multiple layers of archival oil paint using traditional Renaissance style methods.
Began by stretching beautiful loom-state Belgian linen, sealed with heated Rabbit Skin Glue...then did charcoal sketches, thin washes of oil, many layers of oil paint, textured beeswax medium that I have concocted over many years, diverse brushstrokes and layered walnut alkyd medium and oil paint, walnut oil glazes and many enjoyable hours of painting ......
I aimed to capture the cool morning dawn mist at the waterhole where this magnificent old red deer buck was seen, along with his admiring doe. The entire composition was made more significant as I used multiple reference materials / taxidermy / photos and information supplied by the client along with my own resources ... making this a uniquely memorable and much loved gift.
