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Into-the-Light

“Into the Light”

This leopard’s fur glows gold as it emerges from the shadows into the late afternoon light.

I thought it appropriate to title this painting "Inkemba" meaning "Sword".
The lioness scatters the herd and to ensure better success with her kill, she singles out and cuts down the weakest or the lame.

Yes, it really is a jungle out there!
InkembaW

“Leopard’s Cave”
Secure that her cubs are safely hidden in the recesses of the rocks, this female relaxes and suns herself before setting out to hunt. Sightings of females with cubs are extremely rare.

Females have litters of two or three cubs after a gestation of about 100 days. The cubs are kept hidden for the first 2 months and are suckled for at least 3 months. The mother takes them hunting when they are 4 months old and they may stay together as a family group for up to two years. As cubs are weaned they learn to hunt small animals.

 "The Outcast”. I've been mulling over the idea for this painting for a good few years. It's a story of a one-eyed leopard that’s become local legend. This cat was pushed out of it's natural habitat and was forced to move into an outlying suburb where it survived by feeding on domestic pets.
 
I’ve painted the leopard as it crests a low hill; the twinkling lights of human settlement just starting to go on in the distant gloom. It's that moment in time when the cat crosses unseen from the wild into man's domain. The scarred, old leopard takes one last look over it's shoulder before abandoning it's habitat to venture into the unknown.

A melanistic morph of the leopard occurs, particularly in mountainous areas and rain forests. The black color is heritable and caused by a recessive gene. (They are commonly called black panthers, although the term is not exclusive to leopards; it also applies to melanistic jaguars.)

I thought I’d use this painting to illustrate that black, or melanistic cubs can be born to a litter of regular coloured leopards.
They are very rare in Southern Africa although a small number of unsubstantiated sightings have been reported.

Despite being one of the smaller eagle-owl species, the Spotted Eagle Owl nevertheless possesses an impressive one metre wingspan. The plumage is mainly brownish-grey and heavily marked with large white spots and blotches, with the exception of the breast and underparts, which are whitish with fine grey-brown barring. The eyes are large and bright yellow and it has two distinctive, elongated ear tufts.

Lighting the Owl in the twilight sky proved to be quite a challenge, but I'm so happy with the way this painting turned out.
I really had to push the limits to retain detail in the soft light and think I've managed to keep it believable in an almost surreal setting.
There's a dreamlike quality to the painting as the owl soars silently into the starlit sky, free from the pull of earth's gravity.