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Sonia Hayes Art
Behind the PaintingEntry No. 025 min read

The Pride of Kruger, painted in Kent

A note about metallic gold, copper watercolour, and how a lion catches the light differently when you have not seen one in eight years.

Pride, regal lion in metallic gold and copper

I painted Pride from a photograph taken on my last safari before I came to England. Eight English winters between the camera shutter and the watercolour pan. By the time I sat down to paint him, I was painting from memory and longing as much as from the reference. That is when the metallic golds and coppers came in. The light I remembered was the light I painted.

The original sits in a private collection in Surrey. The prints carry the same light, on Platinum Etching 285gsm.

Capturing the regal nature and pride of a male lion and playing on the pun the collective for a family of lions
The painting

Pride.

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View the painting