We saw a lot of buck just before we reached the Skukuza Camp, where we were going to stay the night.

Contradictory terrain!

Just something of interest: If you look back on previous Kruger Park blogs, from the photos I took, to the scenes I had painted, you would have noticed there’s a variety of a different type of scenes. 

Maybe it’s because spring hadn’t yet come properly into its own. Some areas displayed dry golden tufts of thatch grass and burnt out areas. And then some trees had their first shoots of green leaves. And you will see in the coming blogs really lush green scenes! 

Anyway, back to our trip through the park: 

Next, we came across two Nyala Buck.

They were loosely wondering within a very dry area on the left-hand side of the road. 

Then suddenly we came across a clearing between some trees, on the left side of the road. 

Here is an oil painting I painted of that scene:

 

You see the sand in the middle of the scene? It looks dry. Just tufts of grass here and there. But some of the grass looks green. So I presume there must be underground water somewhere there to feed the grass. Perhaps once a little stream ran down through there in the wet season?

How I painted that oil painting: 

(Previously I had prepared several new canvases with a light wash of raw sienna and turps.)

1.  Now that my canvases undercoats were dry, I could select one and fill in the basic formation of the composition. 
2. First a light wash of colour, I drew in the basic outlines of the composition. Using a small brush, just of few loose strokes here and there (no detail) to place the main objects in the scene.  
3. Outlining the flow of the background trees. Perhaps a clump of grass here and there in the foreground. And also those that ran back perspectively into the scene. 
4. Then I blocked in the basic colours of those shapes and filled in the areas in between. Nothing fancy, tidy or detailed! I just `splashed’ on colour to get the basics of the painting approximately placed. Later you can adjust their position, forms or borders if you so wish. 
5. When that’s dry, you can start to fill in the details as you work up the painting, stage by stage. 
6. I like to into-play and into-lace my colours and tones as a work, to create atmospheric depth and emotional impact. 
7. When the composition is dry I come back another day and fill in the highlights. You see, when the painting is dry it tends to look somewhat dullish. That’s when you can see for sure where you need to freshen up the painting and add sparkling highlights!

Sorry about the trees in the background looking do blue. I tried to reduce the blue with my photo app, but they stayed so blue! In the original the trees look leafier with different shades of colours! But the blue does contrast nicely with the golden colour of the grass, anyway!

Then more Nyala & an Impala buck:

 

These buck were right next to the road, with a narrow gully between them and our car. Even though we were so close, they weren’t concerned about us. So it was fascinating to watch them grazing and messing around `doing their thing’ like we weren’t even there! 

       Don’t you think buck are majestic creatures?! 

And we saw this last troop of buck just before entering the Skukuza camp, where we booked in and spent the rest of the afternoon checking out our lodgings, the campsite and its beautiful surroundings. 

Next week’s Kruger travel blog: 

I show an oil painting of the Sabie River with its green reeds, trees, etc. So green and lush after all that dry grass you’ve seen in today’s blog oil painting!