Ancient Egyptian Art

A New Painting - the Egyptian Cat (oils on board)

2012-01-25T20:49:00.000Z

I have always loved cats (I actually have a cat website http://www.cat-breeds-info.com), and decided to paint one. And of course the thought came up how to combine a cat with Egypt. Well, the first thing that came to my mind was the Gayer-Anderson cat - perhaps the most famous Egyptian cat statue, which is a permanent favorite of people visiting the British Museum.

Then I began to wonder what a live cat would look next to the statue, and decided to paint this. I have Abys myself, but this is not my own cat. Oleg Alexeev of the Abysphere cattery in Russia kindly gave me reference photos of this beautiful cat (Abysphere Runet Blogger). I did a drawing using three of his photos.

Here is the working sketch.

And then the first stage. I am inventing painting methods again as I go along... Trying to figure out how to make the Aby's agouti / ticking look reasonably "true". Each hair of the Aby has four bands of color - the lightest nearest the skin, then a darker band, then a lighter one, and the darkest is at the tip. The effect is like that of a brown hare. Could not find any artist advice about this, so I spent days thinking about how to do this, and today started according to plan. The effect is not ready yet, but here is the start.

2012-01-17T20:12:00.000Z

This is an amazing stone statue, over 4500 years old... Do you not wonder the skills of the ancient artist... This is my attempt to do justice to this amazing piece. Scratchboard work on Ampersand board. I cannot begin to count those lines and nicks I made with a razor-sharp scalpel to do this artwork...

This work will be exhibited (and is for sale) at the Villa Royal "Egyptian Treasures" exhibition in Finland, opening at 18th February this year.

Tutankhamon's Throne finished

2012-01-17T20:02:00.000Z

And here it is - finally finished. Tutankhamon's Throne - 70 x 70 cm oil painting on Ampersand Board. This took me 350 hours to finish.

So many people helped me finish this piece - I wish to mention late Bob Partridge of the Ancient Egypt Magazine as one. He kindly gave me permission to use his photo as reference, and I was able to make the detailed drawing for this painting based on his photo.

Another source deserving thanks is the Werner Forman Archives. I was able to finish the finer details of this painting using their photo, which they kindly gave me permission to use.

This painting is for sale at the Villa Royal's "Ancient Egypt" exhibition in Sastamala, Finland, from 18th February onwards.

Tut's Throne - Pectoral above the table

2011-10-23T18:30:00.000+01:00

I thought I could paint the pectoral in a day but it took two days. The ancient Egyptian showed the contents of a box or what was on a table by putting the object in question in the "air" above the furniture.

Tutankhamon's Throne - Tut's Sash

2011-10-16T18:05:00.000+01:00

Today I spent a few hours on Tutankhamon's sash.

And a little detail

Tut's Throne - collars

2011-10-12T19:38:00.000+01:00

And here I have finished the collars of the royal couple...An amazing amount of details to be sure.
Next I shall work on Tut's belt, I think. That will take a full day of work at least.

Tut's Throne continued

2011-10-05T19:31:00.000+01:00

Here I have painted both Tutankhamon's and Ankhesenamun's headdresses, wigs and face, and today I painted the king's body. That is one bright color and it sure took a while to get the right hue mixed...

Tutankhamon's Golden Mask - finished!

2011-09-13T16:28:00.001+01:00

And here is the finished painting. Winsor & Newtom oils on finest hand-stretched linen canvas, 29 x 42 cm.

I wish to express my gratitude to the Werner Forman archive for their kind permission to use their photo (taken at the Egyptian Museum) as a reference to this painting. You can visit their website by clicking on the link on the blog.

Almost there with Tut's Mask...

2011-09-08T19:27:00.000+01:00

After this there are only two "stripes" of beads left to paint and then painting the background into a uniform color. (It is black, but I mix that myself, no tube black).

Tut's Mask - False beard done and some of the collar

2011-09-02T11:05:00.002+01:00

So here is where I am at the moment...

Tut's Mask - Left shoulder

2011-08-21T18:08:00.000+01:00

It seems the flaps of the nemes are still too wet so I haven't started on the false beard. So I worked on the left shoulder (of the pharaoh), where the necklace starts.

And a little closeup...

Tut's Mask - the Nemes is Ready

2011-08-18T19:35:00.002+01:00

Now the nemes headdress is more or less done. Next I'll work on the false beard and necklace.

Tut's Mask - One Flap Done

2011-08-17T18:55:00.000+01:00

Ok, so one side of the nemes is now done. Will move to the other "flap" next.

Tut's Mask - Down the Left Side of Nemes

2011-08-15T19:10:00.000+01:00

Decided to continue with the same side of the nemes anyway.

Tut's Mask - Headdress progressing...

2011-08-14T13:49:00.000+01:00

This is where I managed to paint this today. I seem to get used to painting that gold in the shadows... Plenty on hair-thin different-colored scratches that blend into each other when seen from a distance...

Tut's Mask - Stripes, Stripes...

2011-08-11T19:23:00.000+01:00

...and some more stripes...

Tut's Mask - More Stripes of the Nemes

2011-08-09T20:54:00.000+01:00

And here is what I had time for today.

And a closeup...

Tut's Mask - More Work on the Nemes Headdress

2011-08-07T18:32:00.000+01:00

And here is today's work... I worked some more on the headdress - finished the golden band on the pharaoh's forehead and painted four stripes of the nemes-headdress.

Tut's Mask - Rest of the Cobra

2011-08-06T16:13:00.000+01:00

Took me three and a half hours to paint the rest of the Cobra and those few stripes of nemes-headdress. The ancient artists sure had a liking to detail!!

Tut's Mask - Neck

2011-08-04T19:41:00.002+01:00

And today I added the neck...

Tut's Mask - the Ear

2011-08-01T20:09:00.000+01:00

Today I painted the ear. I may tweak it later, but this was all I had patience for today. Really - not the easiest thing to paint!

Tut's Mask - Left Cheek

2011-07-31T20:03:00.000+01:00

Here I have now worked on the left cheek. You can see the stipes of the nemes-headdress reflected.

Tut's Mask - Left eye

2011-07-28T19:02:00.000+01:00

I only had time to paint the left eye today, so I did that. It is so eerie to notice the eye in the mask has this reddish tone in the eyeball, just like in real life. I felt like Tut was looking at me with real human eyes...

Attached is also a pic of the brushes I have used in painting this.

Tut's Mask - Nose, Mouth and Chin

2011-07-25T19:20:00.000+01:00

And this is what I had time to paint today. The nose, mouth and chin - and the area under the eyebrow of the left eye.

Tutankhamon's Golden Mask - Right Eye and Eyebrows

2011-07-19T20:46:00.000+01:00

Today I worked on the right eye and the eyebrows. The brows and the "eye liner" are made of pieces of lapis lazuli, carefully fitted together so at a glance they look like one piece in real life. I wanted to bring out this puzzle effect.

I use a miniature brush and was wondering why it did not give color well. I finally checked the brush and noticed it had only one hair left! And I must have painted with that for at least half an hour LOL :D