(affectionately known as "Gonk")
This is my all time favorite pose and the first one that I painted. We named him Gonk because he traveled all over the house with me and, with him being rather on the large side, I must have banged him on every door jam, wall, and ceiling we have. One night as I was caroming down the hall I told Victor that we really should name him (and while hitting one more wall with him) made the sound effect "GONK." The name stuck.
We spend a lot of time at the zoo, especially with the zebras. The blue and white zebras in this series were inspired by all my blue and white china in our dining room. The blue noses and hooves seem to vibrate against the red backgrounds and I let the stripes tell the story of their topography without the intrusion of shading. They are still among my very favorites and I get the feeling that I will be painting stripes for a long time to come.
