Gary says: “Very few of my drawings portray animals on
the move. I do try though to create a
sense of ‘liveliness’ in even my most static and calm drawings. I believe Heat
and Dust is the most successful of these that do have actual movement.
“I
am pleased with the ‘weight’ of the drawing and the dramatic lighting which
adds to the craggy, prehistoric feel of the beast. The actual photographs of
mine that I used as main reference for this picture were of a Black Rhino
walking. So I studied a number of charging rhino photos from my huge collection
of wildlife books before starting.I chose
to lower the angle of view to nearly ground level to make the drawing more
imposing, altered the angle of the animal slightly to give the impression of
faster movement and added loads of the magic dust at the very end.
“I’ve
observed Black Rhinoceros on quite a number of occasions now, mainly in the Ngorongoro
Crater, Tanzania.
One memorable time was twenty five minutes spent with a mother and young calf.
I also got really close up to another at Daphne Sheldrick's elephant orphanage
in Nairobi, Kenya
in 2003 (see photo on Kenya
page). It was an orphaned rhino that Daphne and her team nursed back to good
health.
“The Heat
and Dust original first sold in 1990 at the Medici Gallery in New Bond Street, London.
It went to a keen collector of mine for well under £700. In 2000, it went under
the hammer at the Christies Wildlife art auction, reselling for an impressive £6,463.
Not a bad ten year investment!”
