Older paintings
These images of rare animals are paintings that I created when I first started to paint with acrylic on canvas and was working with teacher Lisette on techniques to create shapes and backgrounds.
Clouded Leopard
​The clouded leopard is the smallest of the big cats at 4 feet long with a 3 foot long tail, 2 feet tall at the shoulder, and weighing in at 48 pounds. Despite the small size, it has the longest canine teeth of any animal for it's size at up to 2 inches long, giving it the ability to yawn up to 105 degrees to sink the teeth in the neck of it's prey making this the last living saber-tooth cat on earth. It can hang upside down from branches and turn it's hind feet backwards to climb down trees head-first so it can climb very tall trees to chase prey and get away from predators. It's threatened from habitat loss, poachers, farmers that hate them because they think the cats would eat their livestock, and loss of prey.
Asian Lion
​The Asian lion has a smaller mane than the lions of Africa to help squeeze through the trees of the rainforest of India. They also have darker spots on the legs, chest, and belly to blend in with shadows of the jungle. Its endangered by deforestation and poaching.
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For this painting I looked for all of the small shapes on the lion and the background and then painted them with different colors.
Axolotl
The axolotl is a species of amphibian that once lived in Lake Xochimilco, but now only lives in captivity. This salamander is likely the most unusual because unlike other salamanders, It lives It's entire life in water instead of moving on to land. But perhaps the most incredible fact is that it can regenerate any part of it's whole body completely with no surgery at all, even parts of the brain as well as the limbs. It also has the most genome of all animals, at least known to science for now. Despite all this, The axolotl is declared extinct in the wild because of pollution and non-native species like the African tilapia and the Asian carp. This painting was made for my friend Ian because he's fascinated by this creature.
Blue Iguana
​The blue Iguana belongs on some islands south of Florida. Its a herbivore, meaning it only eats plants, like fruits and leafs fallen from trees.
They're endangered because of 2 problems, habitat loss due to farming, and poachers.
