W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm
Often, when travelling on the Sterkfontein road on our way to Lanseria Airport, these Black Wildebeest cross the road, bringing all the traffic to a halt and resulting in everybody hauling out their cameras and binoculars. I always leave early for the airport, never know what you might spot on the road!
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Black Wildebeest, also known as the White Tailed GNU, are endemic to South Africa, found almost exclusively in the Highveld areas of the country in South Africa. It is a very strange and comical looking specie with its black body, erect mane, long whitish tail, forward curving horns and facial crest. They were on the verge of extinction in the 1960’s, but are plentiful today as a result of careful conservation management. They are often found in herds of females and young males, with the older males either being solitary or forming small bachelor herds.
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Your work is so engaging and interesting. I admire how you've dedicated your art efforts to this one path and you are an expert at wildlife art and relating the personalities and habits of each animal.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful of you to say so Katherine, thanks ever so much! I'm totally pleased you like this and pleased you visited!
DeleteYour Wildebeest looks deliciously exotic to me. We have some in the wildlife park where I volunteer .... but to see them in Africa would be so much better. Your watercolor makes the experience almost alive.
ReplyDeletethanks ever so much Elva! The Wildebeest is definitely out of the ordinary but because of their abundance here (you perhaps know of the Wildebeest migration that happens every year when hundreds of thousands of them cross the Serengeti in search of greener pastures), they are often over-looked.
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