And now for something completely different!

Painted Ostrich Egg - commissioned piece

A couple of years ago I picked up an ostrich egg at a local farmer's market. I'd seen paintings done on ostrich eggs before and since I'm always interested in trying new things I thought it might be fun to do. It only took 2 years to finally get around to it! The paintings I'd seen done on ostrich eggs were generally images of wildlife or flowers that just happened to be done on the unique surface. Nice as those were, I wanted to really take advantage of it being, well, an egg, and so I came up with the idea of painting a Beardie pup to appear to be hatching from the egg. That first piece can be seen on the miscellaneous page on my website, at www.madigan-wyndian.com/miscellaneous.htm. Shortly after I put the photo on my website I was contacted by someone who had seen it and was interested in having me paint one like it for her. The vendor I'd bought my egg from was no longer selling them, but I was able to find another source not too far away. Ostrich eggs come in a bit of a range of sizes and shapes, with some more oval and others more round. My original egg had been a smallish oval egg (about 5" tall and 3 1/2" wide,) so it was a bit of a surprise to see these new eggs being substantially bigger and more round in shape, not to mention a fair bit heavier. This one measures about 7" tall, and approx. 5" wide.

For this commissioned piece the client wanted it to be a brown Beardie pup, and sent a few pictures of one of her girls as a baby to use as a reference so I could paint it to look like her. Ostrich eggs are not difficult to paint on per se, but with the shell being a somewhat slick surface it does take some preparation to ensure the paint adheres properly, and the curved surface makes transferring the drawing a little bit of a challenge. Plus, there's always the worry of dropping it!

Once completed I sent a photo to the client for approval, and then packed it up to send it off - in a large box and using lots of bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts! It arrived at its destination safe and sound and the appreciative raves about it from the client were music to my ears. Oh, and for those who might be wondering, I buy the eggs already emptied and cleaned.