Triceratops painted rock: First Friday Art

I created this palm-sized Triceratops painted rock about twenty years ago. Many of us, young and old, love dinosaurs and this one lived in my garden for a while. I painted it with acrylics and covered it with a thin layer of clear finish.

Triceratops painted rock

Triceratops’ unique anatomy is apparent in this mounted skeleton at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. Their name means ‘three-horned face.’ The massive skull has a fringe of bone in the back. The horns and bony fringe may have helped protect this dinosaur from Tyrannosaurus rex, its most common predator. I’ve featured a big T. rex rock and a smaller one in previous posts.

Triceratops skeleton
Triceratops mounted skeleton at Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles, CA
Source: Allie_Caulfield Derivative: User:MathKnight, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Though they look ferocious, Triceratops were herbivores. This stout dinosaur has been described as sort of a cross between a cow and a rhinoceros. These massive creatures could weigh well over 11,000 pounds.

Models of this and other life-size dinosaurs can be found JuraPark in Baltow, Poland. I’ve seen models at other museums and parks, but have not visited this site. Their Triceratops models look amazing!

Dinosaur models
Model of dinosaur, JuraPark, Solec Kujawski, Poland
Source: CLI, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Hmmm. After seeing this model, I’m feeling inspired to create a baby Triceratops painted rock. 😀

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First Friday Art (FFA)

Dinosaur rock: Finding my calm

Dinosaur rock, Siobhan Sullivan March 2020

I was looking for things to do around the house and decided to paint this dinosaur rock. This 8″ x 12″ Tyrannosaurus rex is the bigger version of this rock that I painted several years ago. Maybe this one will find a place in my garden.

In these chaotic times, I was looking for something to bring a sense of calm. Who knew I could find my calm by painting a dinosaur rock.

Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.

Stephen Sondheim

This morning I found this article – Soothe Your Soul With An Arts Break. It features a wide variety of artwork from diverse artists. The site features six short videos. I hope some of the art in these videos will soothe your soul… at least for a little while.

The T. rex within

Tyrannosaurus rex rock by Siobhan Sullivan ©2017

While on vacation, I picked up a rock and it told me what it was meant to be. A T. rex of course!

I took it home and got ready to paint a  Tyrannosaurus rex. All of the ridges and depressions seemed to be in exactly the right spots. Even the greenish color was right. I darkened a few spots and enhanced others. I added scales with a tiny brush. The crooked T. rex grin fit right into the contours of the rock. The nostril and eye placed themselves along a ridge and depression.

Look past external appearances and you may find magic hidden within.

Weekly Photography Challenge – Repurpose