Peter Smith B.1967
The Lost Impossimals have been a long time coming; they started way back in 2007 with a small doodle on the back of an old sketchpad when I had the idea that Impossimals, far from being a new discovery, were in fact already part of history. As I thought more and more about where the Impossimals had originated from something clicked; not just any something, but a big something and suddenly I could see in full the entire history before me. That was the easy part, the hardest was the research, photographing, model-making and collating all the material so I could then start to paint them. Early in 2008 I painted my first, the Hippocrocapig, on a second hand framed canvas found for a few pounds in a antique shop. I was hooked. Not only did the Lost Impossimals come alive but with them an entire new way of looking at a world that was bursting to get out. I became an explorer, delving deeper into history to find little slips of information that would enable me to pinpoint not only an Impossimal but also the effect it had upon history after its discovery. To give this a real feel and to embed itself in my imagination I invented two things: Firstly the fictitious National Museum of Antiquities - a place to hold the Lost Impossimal collection. Secondly Sir Charles ‘Bluster’ Burroughs, a renowned Victorian explorer who discovered, catalogued and painted the Lost Impossimal out in the field. Combined, they pulled together the Lost Impossimals over the last two years to create the first Natural Twistory, the document you are now holding in your hands.
NA T I ONA L MU S EUM OF AN T I QU I T I E S F o u n d e d 1 7 8 6
IMPOS S IMAL SAURUS G I GANT I CUS LOS T IMPOS S IMAL S
f r o m t h e f i e l d n o t e s o f C h a r l e s B u r r o u g h s ( ‘ B l u s t e r B u r r o u g h s ’ ) 1 4 t h D e c e m b e r 1 8 2 0 – J u l y 4 t h 1 9 1 1 )
F o r e m o s t V i c t o r i a n E x p l o r e r & C r y p t o z o o l o g i s t
p u b l i s h e d b y t h e NAT I ONAL IMPOS S I GRAPH I C SOC I ETY n i p w i p , v i c t o r i a f a l l s
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