First artwork of 2012: Lusus Naturae (Loch Ness Monster)

Just finished this last night. I may add an acrylic gloss / varnish over top later but I took these photos first. I will most likely be entering this into a big group show that starts later this year, along with a couple of other pieces. More on that later (if I get in :)

My version of the Loch Ness monster is a sort of mix between a  kelpie and a plesiosaurus, two of the creatures often associated with the Nessie folklore.

From Wikipedia 

According to the Swedish naturalist and author Bengt Sjögren (1980), the present day belief in lake-monsters is associated with the legends of kelpies. Sjögren claims that the accounts of lake-monsters have changed during history. Older reports often talk about horse-like appearances, but more modern reports often have more reptile and dinosaur-like-appearances, and Sjögren concludes that the legends of kelpies evolved into the present day legends of lake-monsters where the monsters changed the appearance since the discovery of dinosaurs and giant aquatic reptiles from the horse-like water-kelpie to a dinosaur-like reptile, often a plesiosaur.

 Lusus Naturae (Loch Ness Monster)
22 x 30 inches
Ink, Red Wine, Oil Pastels on Fabriano watercolor paper