Ankaris Oil Painting Project
Tibetan monks perform a sky burial on the dead, they understand the raw vessel is but an empty shell, recycling the raw matter of our bodies back to the earth. The spirit has moved on.
What if the giant ships that ply the space lanes are built around a sentient AI? What if that AI possess a spirit? And when that AI has passed? The lumbering hulks are all that remain and they are given a sky burial.
About the work:
This is a traditional oil painting project I started in 2009 inspired by ship breaking but on a scale that dwarfs our sea going equivalents. As a film matte painter and concept artist I'm highly influenced by cinema - in this instance - David Leans, Lawrence Of Arabia.
The goal is to produce enough work for a large format book which may include short stories set in this world.

Vantage Point . 52" x 20" . Oil on linen

Passage . 52" x 20" . Oil on. linen . 2023 Silver place . Imaginative Realism . ARC Salon 2024

Sky Burial #2 . 60" x 26" . Oil on linen . Included in Spectrum 19 . Honourable Mention in 2014 ARC Salon, Imaginative Realism . Selected into Spectrum Exhibition at Society of Illustrators 2014

Drone Shot . 40" x 16" . Oil on linen . 2023

Sky Burial #3 . 60" x 23" . Oil on linen . Honourable Mention in 2015 ARC Salon, Imaginative Realism

Levitation . 46" x 18" . Oil on linen . Honourable Mention in 2015 ARC Salon, Imaginative Realism

Kunzum La, 60" x 23", Oil on Linen

Rendezvous . 40" x 16" . Oil on linen

Wadi Akra . 52" x 20" . Oil on linen . 2016 ARC Salon finalist, Imaginative Realism

Dust Devil . 40" x 16" . Oil on linen . Silver Award Spectrum 23 . 2016 ARC Salon finalist, Imaginative Realism

Buddha Returns. 40" x 16" . Oil on linen .