Tiger in a Jungle

40x45" watercolor on paper.

The immersive background of this very large, rough, messy and free-form landscape painting is inspired by something I saw in a Scully & Scully catalogue. Can't make this stuff up. I found it irresistible. So striking, the hush of the chosen colors - and then the pop of the birds in the tree against the muted putty sky, the celery and rose tinted flora. So that explains the background.

And then the tiger is inspired by one of the exhibits in the Natural History Museum. We took our oldest son, Jackson to visit this past winter on a pilgrimage back to his homeland, New York City. He remembers nothing about it. He lived there in another lifetime before 2020 rewrote his internal code. Never the less, he knew everything there was to know about every animal in that museum. All five year olds do. The tiger is always a favorite.

At the end of the museum visit, we suggested we buy something from the gift shop, something that would remind him of all the animals and dinosaurs... since we'd spent our whole visit looking at the animals and dinosaurs. But what did he want? An astronaut costume. That you can get delivered same-day from Amazon. Or in 14 days from Maisonette. You know that one.

We did not do one single space related activity at the museum but he was hell bent on this being his chosen memento. We stayed firm in our parental tantrum, refusing to cave to his demands. We bought him a nice t shirt with all the animals on it. "You'll always think of our visit when you wear this. It's green! You love green!" we reasoned with him through hot, furious tears (his, not ours. I feel like I need to be clear on that) 

We then walked against freezing January wind to shake shack for lunch with old friends. I couldn't wait to get started on painting the animals from that day. I knew this memory would be inescapable every time I revisited this subject matter. Life and art, art and life. Can't have one without the other. 

Signed original. Ships rolled.