ELSEWHERE

George

This is a drawing of George, an African elephant who resided in the main hall of the Natural History Museum for many years prior to the Diplodocus.



When I was not in this particular museum, I spent much time in this one...













What I would not give to be back in the British Museum this afternoon, lost in one of its many rooms.

(George features in my forthcoming zine. More on that soon.)

A new zine on the horizon

Feeling very inspired from recent travel I find myself drawing with much gusto. I have just finished five pencil drawings of animals I saw in the Natural History Museum, London. After some contemplation I thought what better space for these drawings to live than a new zine which is naturally entitled Quadrupeds drawn from London’s Natural History Museum collection.

I have the zine ready to print and will do so very early next week. If the wind is right and the stars stay aligned then I will have it folded and ready for showing a few days later. I am very excited about this new little zine. I think it may be the start of a new series. Birds from… Dinosaurs in... Insects which are… the possibilities are endless!

Inside the museum

It has long been a dream of mine to sit and draw at the Natural History Museum and now I can happily say I have done so. Here for you is an Okapi. He is described (in 1887) as being a cross between a giraffe, zebra and antelope. He is also described as being shy and elusive in character. He was the crowning zoological discovery of the nineteenth century.







It was amazing to see the dodo I had drawn earlier in the year (from a photo in a book). Now I was able to see him in person, separated only by glass.







I don't seem to be suffering the same post-museum and gallery fatigue as Gracia, but I'd sure like to be wandering through an exhibit this afternoon.

Time away

I have just returned from two (and a fraction) weeks overseas. Away from my home. Away from all that is familiar. I have instead been amongst things and places that I have read about in text books, things and places I have often been inspired by and hoped to see in person, things and places dreams are made of.








 
I have spent time in London and Paris. Too little time, really, but precious, amazing and inspiring nonetheless.








 
Above are but a few pictures of some things and places I saw. I shall no doubt bombard you with more in the coming weeks. Gracia joined me on this amazing trip and together we explored. She will also share with you with her wonderful photos and thoughts.

A Great white shark and The Old Man and the Sea

I recently read Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and I was completely swept away. It is very, very beautifully written. So epic the story yet so small a book.

Then he was sorry for the great fish that had nothing to eat and his determination to kill him never relaxed in his sorrow for him. How many people will he feed, he thought. But are they worthy to eat him? No, of course not. There is no one worthy of eating him from the manner of his behaviour and his great dignity.

Drawing of a lemur skull

The lemurs of Madagascar are celebrated for their incredible diversity but also for their tragic recent demise. At least 17 species have become extinct during the last couple of thousand years, including the sloth lemur, which was as big as a chimpanzee, and the koala lemur, which was the size of a gorilla. There are still 50 living species of this remarkable group of primates, some as small as a mouse, others as large as a one-year-old human, but all are threatened by hunting and extensive loss of habitat. Lemurs first arrived on Madagascar about 60 million years ago. It was too far to swim from the mainland, so they probably drifted over on natural rafts, purely by chance. These first arrivals would have been small and uncommon, but once on Madagascar, with limited competition and few predators, they increased in size and numbers to fill every available ecological niche. That all changed when humans arrived 2,000 years ago. The large species were the first to go, as big animals are more vulnerable to habitat loss, more attractive targets for hunters and slower to reproduce.
 
Treasures of the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum, London
2010

What I would not give to see them drifting across on their tiny rafts!