Torrit Buddha
 

Just entered this in Gamblin's Torrit Grey competition - my first time doing so. Was really inspired by Chris Sapers' winning entry last year, so I thought I'd give it a try. This is from a series of photos I took while visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia several years ago.

I'm not sure this qualifies as a "portrait" in the strict sense of the word, but I will say this: most of the time I was painting this, it felt like I was painting a portrait. There is a real presence in this particular carving....

-D

detail....

Oh, this is just fabulous David! I hope you win!

Fascinating, David! Good luck with the competition!

so cool! you shoudl win!

Chris, Alex, Patricia,

Thanks for the replies. Great to hear from you!

David

That's great!

Good luck, David!

Nice!
 

Lotus Tom.

Claudemir, Tom, SB --

Thanks for the kind responses. It was interesting to be forced to use only black, white, and Torrit grey (Gamblin) for the competition. The version of torrit grey I had was a kind of brownish-olive, which served me well for this painting.

But I did feel a strong urge to use more color - so I'm planning to paint this image once again, using whatever colors I want. And it will be a much larger painting - 40" X 60" ish. At this particular temple (the Bayon) in Cambodia there some 200 of these carved faces, and they're quite large - each face alone is over six feet tall. I think a larger canvas would help to capture some of the presence that these incredible carvings suggest.

-D