A discarded old paint pot around the back of a temple. It had been part of a small bonfire to dispose of rubbish but all the fire did was produce some lovely and fascinating burnt patterns across its surface.
The patterning seemed very dynamic, full of energy, almost like an explosion. I took a macro photograph of the pot's base and with the help of Photoshop created the image above of a gnu (or wildebeest if you prefer). Clods of earth thrown into the air as it leaps - or is it muddy water splashing? Exactly what is going on and why the gnu is jumping are details left to the imagination.
I turned another photograph of the same pot into this picture of a praying mantis looming over a bush cricket. A change of scale and a low angle with depth that creates intimacy.
My favourite kind of wildlife art is where something is happening but the outcome is uncertain, leaving plenty of room for the viewer's imagination to fill in the rest. It creates tension, doubt and a sense of story.
I want to encourage people to poke around the forgotten corners of our urban world looking at all the wonderful little details of weathering. Those surfaces have been worked by natural forces as a kind of reclamation and, to me, so much of it is reminiscent of the natural world in the shapes and patterning that have been created. There are landscapes in those water stains and a forest of branches in that cracked paintwork! I use photography and Photoshop to create wildlife scenes from it but anyone can do it with their own imagination.
Finally, here's a photo of a different burnt pot from the same place without any added wildlife. Looking beyond the fact that it is a sorry sign of careless urban decay to be dismissed as an eyesore, it also shows the hand of nature painting an intricate work of abstract art that allows the eye to wander and deserves more recognition.
