Woops

Wow, I let another year–more than a year–go by without posting on this site. Silly me.

Picking up where I left off in 2019, here are some watercolors…

Caracal (Caracal caracal)

Two Views of a Human Skull (Home Sapiens)

Fenway Park Night Game

Sooty-headed Bulbul (Pycnonotus aurigaster)

Minute Fruit Bat (Cynopterus minutus)

Greater and Lesser Short-Nosed Fruit Bat (Cynopterus sphinx and brachuotis)

African Crested Porcupine (Hystrix cristata)

Totem

Sparrows

First painting of 2019.

Last of 2018

Stuff from 2018 that didn’t get posted:

Wickford

There are Cows in Attleboro!

Mowry Reservation

Sara’s Garden

The Taunton River in Dighton

Ivy

Wareham

Charles River at the Newton-Needham Line

Duck Skull

Bruce

Random Musing No. 1

The human eye has a range of 120°, mostly peripheral vision, compared to the camera’s typical 200° or more. That is why the figures sometimes seem distorted at the edges of a photograph. We make up for this seeming deficit by moving our focus (in movements called “saccades”) around a scene to build up a gestalt awareness of its appearance.

A painting, curated by human intelligence, is superior in every respect to a photograph, except for how long it takes to make it. If cameras took three hours to create the exact same image as they do now in a split second, there would be no question as to which medium people would choose when they needed an image recorded.

Old Painting

Going through my garage looking for Halloween-appropriate art, I came across this rather large (for me) oil on linen.

They are, clockwise, starting from the horse, a horse (maybe a mule–no way to tell without the lower jaw), a gorilla (sadly, plaster, the only fake item in my collection; I woud kill for a real gorilla skull), human (I have the rest of the skeleton in the garage), baboon, cheetah (I’m definitely not supposed to have that; I could tell you how I got it, but then I’d have to kill you), klipspringer (a small antelope), and a daffodil to take the edge off.

Some Watercolors

I sold a watercolor of my goat skull, so I did a replacement. The other piece is entitled “Ancestors,” because reasons. That is a vervet monkey and a hyrax skull.

Camel Skull

24″ x 36″ oil painting. I took photos of it as the painting progressed.

 

This was my annual birthday present to myself. Interestingly, the lower jaw was broken when I received the piece, so I took pictures and wrote the following email to the supplier:

Hi,

I received my skull and while I am overall very pleased with it, I was disappointed to discover that the lower jaw was broken in transit (see attached photos). I repaired it with Crazy Glue, but you should be aware that there was a problem with packing/shipping. If you want to make it up to me, a free ostrich egg would assuage my feelings.

Best,

Marc Clamage

The seller wrote back,

What kind of ostrich egg are you referring to?

I answered,

Oh, you know, one of your 5-6 inch $15 ostrich eggs–can I guilt you into sending me one?

Two days later a package came in the mail. Result:

I should have asked for a stand.

February? I haven’t posted since February?

Well, it’s September now. Better start in on the backlog.

Here are the rest of the skull watercolors I’ve done to date, in the order done. Got busy with other stuff, but that will be the next post.

Deer and Ostrich. The ostrich is a little weak.

Pig, Seymour (Bones), and Three Views of a Human Skull:

The pig painting was thoughtfully ruined by my cat.

 

Squirrel and Cheetah:

I wasn’t really happy with these last few, so I took a little break from the watercolors for a few weeks. And then my birthday came.

The thing about birthdays is, if you want something for your birthday, you should get it for yourself. I happen to collect skulls and so every year I treat myself by buying one skull.

Oops. Got a little carried away this year.

For starters, I knew I wanted a monkey. I also knew I didn’t want to spend more than $150. I posted on a bunch of Facebook groups where people buy and sell skulls, but no response. I started looking around for alternatives.

I found an interesting skull, a good addition to my collection, on a wholesale skull-and-shell site. And it was only $45 too! Bonus! I went to check out… and found that I had to buy a minimum of $100 worth of stuff (wholesale, remember?). No problem, $100 was less than I was planning on spending anyway, so I ended up getting this:

Clockwise from the left, a gar, a bat skeleton, a hyrax (the original impetus for my purchase), two chicken skulls and two turtle (“cooter”) skulls (these last were minimum purchases). Cost me about $115 plus tax. I gave a friend the surplus skulls, then painted these:

Hyrax, Gar with Tape Dispenser, Cooter, and Two Views of a Chicken Skull:

The hyrax looks like a rodent but is actually more closely related to the elephant and the manatee.

And then… someone contacted me with a monkey skull for sale. It was half price, $75… I just couldn’t resist…

Vervet Monkey