Original artwork description:

I saw this orangutan in Bali, and was lucky enough to be able to pet him and hold his hand. I was impressed by the obvious intelligence shown in his face, and so it was important to me that I captured this quality in his face.
The painting went through several stages from the first bold streaks of colour building into the thoughtful animal I had seen. There was a stage when he seemed sad, rather than thoughtful, and I worked on the mouth to try to remedy this. Unfortunately that did not work, and eventually I had to redraw the position of the whole lower face. Finally I achieved what I set out to produce and was happy with the lighting and colour, as well as the personality.
The painting is on a wrapped stretched canvas that is wired ready to hang.

Materials used:

oil paints

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