Monkey Thinking, Gibraltar, Spain/UK

This scene was painted on location in Gibraltar, Spain/UK in 1998. I was half way up the rock of Gibraltar when I came upon this animal, which is technically an ape, not a monkey I suppose. The funny thing about doing this painting was that the monkey actually sat still and posed for me, and as soon as I finished, the monkey got up and left. I wish people would be so helpful when you painted them.

You can tell how hot it was from the way the paint
dried. The sky has several visible brush strokes, which indicates that the paint dried very fast. The hot temperature also allowed a lot of overlapping detail. You can see the bars of the fence overlapping the mountains in the distance, and all of the detail in the monkeys fur. To be honest, the monkeys were kind of gross, and if you let them, they would jump on you and try to steal things. But hey, they looked cute.

Monkey Thinking, watercolour, 5 x 7" hot press, 1998 (No. 0930)