African Topi Painting

HEY FRIENDS! Getting back into my summer routine, writing and painting, drawing, and working out each morning, playing soccer. Today is my annniversary, 12 years to my honey bunny, best friend, my heart's other half, Gayln. Just a quick note on the painting: This is "U-Topi-A" a watercolor and ink painting of the amazing unique looking Topi antelope found in Kenya and Tanzania and Sudan too. These guys seem almost tri-colored in certain light. The Masai warriors explained to me that the Topi is the fastest antelope. I don't know if this is true but i know it is a BIG antelope, dwarfing Impalas and gazelles. I hope you like it. Doug Hiser

INK BIRD WORK

Hello everyone, I'm back to what I love ink and birds. These two ink works are interesting birds, the Shjort Eared Owl, and a wren. The wren, a tiny bird which always seems to like to nest in one of our hanging baskets near my dove habitat is an exciting and dramaticly quick bird. The short eared owl is an awesome predator and why did they let ornithologist's name them. "short eared" kind of a weird name for an owl. I am missing the weeks in the Africa landscape, with elephants and giraffes moving about. I am back to writing on my newest novel, The Island of the Moalo Komo, my goal is 1000 words daily. I just finished a rewrite and reread of the first 45 pages. I know i will go back to Africa someday. I dream of the animals and the land every night since i came home. I will also start African animal art very soon working from our many reference photos. Enjoy your summer my friends! Doug Hiser

KENYA AFRICA a journey into wildlife

After many amazing adventures in Kenya Africa we are now back in Texas. Africa is NOT what you see on TV. Africa is a place of wild creatures and mysterious landscapes. It is a place where your imagination runs wild in the darkness of night surrounded by bewildering and terrifying sounds. It is a paradise. It is an enigma. It is beauty and soothing but also harsh and brutal. It is the cradle of animal life. I imagined while watching great herds of elephants, Cape buffalo, zebra, impala, giraffe, and oryx followed by hyena, lions and leopard, that this is what America could have been. I envisioned our wild landscape of vast herds of bison, pronghorn antelope, elk, deer, moose, followed by our north american predators wolves, bear, mountain lions. We realized all this too late. We butchered our wildlife heritage and decimated our native americans. Africa has saved millions of acres of their natural landscape and their wildlife heritage lives free while their people revere and do not kill their precious animals. We visited with Maisai warriors and their people in villages and they live the same way they have for centuries, eating only beef, goat, milk and the cattle's blood. They do not kill wildlife. They are a proud people who cling to their system of life. They are impressive and vastly so different from us. After downloading today 1304 photos from our trip I have reference photos of African animals for a long time. My first copy of my newest book of art, PAINTED JUNGLES has arrived, and I am very proud that it is the most comprehensive representation of my animal art.

JAGUAR on the ROCKS

School if finally out for the Summer! My first piece of summer is a reminder of our trip to Costa Rica, even though we didn't get to see a wild jaguar it was something i was always on the lookout for. I used some zoo pics for a reference and the river inspiration came from some of our photos and mostly is from my imagination anyway. I scanned often while working on this piece and it was difficult because it is so small, only 8 x 10. It is very hard to get much detail in my jaguar at that tiny size and used my magnifying glasses. I hope you like the composition. In three more days we will be off the grid until June 17th, on our way to Kenya, Africa. I am excited to go, nervous to go, anxious to go, wondering about going off to the dark unknown continent, into a mysterious land of strange people and wildlife. One friend of ours told me yesterday that my biggest expense is not our plane tickets...he said our biggest expense will be all the art supplies (paint) for when I get back so inspired by the amazing wildlife of AFRICA! See you guys when i get back! Thanks for all the support! Doug Hiser