I found an old metal gate in front of somebody's house down a back-street of our local town. It was painted but somebody had sprayed graffiti on it so the owner had then painted over it again thus taking it back to a neat and tidy but very dull frontage. Then over the course of a few years the magic happened as nature was left to get on with the gradual process of weathering. The paint cracked and flaked off leaving some beautiful patches of colourful textures and patterns in a mosaic of layers. It was at this point that I came along and started drooling over it.
From a distance this gate is an eyesore and I expect at some point it will get painted over with another layer of bland uniform colour. But for now it is absolutely lovely when looked at close-up in detail. For me, it will be a sad day when this little gem is lost but at least I have recorded those glorious details for posperity!
I spent about 20 minutes taking macro photographs of this gate's weathered surface and I am very happy with the results but my particular interest is to take these urban decay photographs and turn them into wildlife art, which I do with the help of Photoshop.
Here are five of them, together with the original photographs without the wildlife for comparison. I value these as attractive abstracts in themselves so I won't be insulted if anyone says they prefer the animal-less versions!
Baboon Ledge
Social primates always make for interesting subjects but it is tempting to over-do them. I could easily have filled this picture with more baboons climbing around in those different spaces but the risk is that the background becomes overwhelmed by the wildlife and no longer noticed by the viewer. The flaky paint of different colours in this background deserves the space to shine so I left it at just one ledgeful of baboons.
Bear Woods
I struggled to find the right woodland creature to be hiding behind these vertical paint stripes. I tried a variety of animals but couldn't get the composition to work, usually because too much of the animal was hidden. Then this bear jumped out at me with that distinctive head being visible while the simple shape of its bulky body could be largely hidden but still apparent.
Camel Trek
Cracked patterns often bring to mind somewhere arid with the orange colour here adding to that impression. However, the greenish tones make it feel like these dromedary camels are strolling along in the cool of early morning before the sun has gained full strength.
Curlew Waterworld
I tend to prefer compositions with odd numbers. A single animal or a group of three usually give an image a better balance unless there is an obvious reason for just a pair. It also often works for five and seven rather than four or six but beyond that it's hard to see a difference. In this case I tried to fit in a third curlew on the left but for various reasons it always looked awkward so I left it at two and this pair has grown on me.
Leopard
This background has such a leopard pattern about it that the subject was easy to choose and the orange on black makes for a nice dramatic feel balanced by the curling grace of that tail.
And here is the old gate itself so you can see just how ugly it is!
These artworks and others are available as digital downloads through my Patreon page.
