Introducing The Royals – A New Series

Howdy! I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything here. I’ve been busy working on a new series (and making prints, and I taught a beginning oil painting class, not to mention: Life! It keeps ya busy, right?). Anyway…

Animals and nature provide endless sources of inspiration to me. When I was a munchkin, I used to write reports about animals for no apparent reason. I was convinced I was going to become a zoologist and get married in the jungle with chimpanzees as members of my wedding party. That, or I was going to become a veterinarian. But then I watched Gorillas in the Mist and got a bit freaked out about the whole jungle living thing, and the idea of watching animals suffer drove me away from the vet world. So now, I paint them.

One thing that has been of major concern to me is the fact that many of the animals that we assume will always be around are being driven off the planet and into extinction. A century ago, there were nearly 100,000 tigers in the world. Now their numbers are closer to 3,200. The orangutan population in Sumatra is down to around 6,600. While African elephants number around 400,000, poachers killed nearly 100,000 of these amazing animals in just 3 years due to poaching.

This is awful. While I’d like to go out and battle the poachers personally, I decided to help in another way. I’m going to donate a portion of the profits from the sales of this series to 2 different organizations: WildAid (http://www.wildaid.org/about-wildaid) and The Orangutan Foundation (http://orangutan.org/). Both organizations are rated 4 stars by Charity Navigator. If you know of an organization that could use some support, please let me know.

While I plan on adding to the collection, I wanted to introduce you to my inaugural group: I present, The Royals. They can be purchased here as loose prints or mounted on wood.