Caiman Lizard Exhibit

I painted this mural for the Caiman Lizard Exhibit in the Herpetarium.  Caiman lizards are large (several feet long), beautiful, intelligent reptiles.  They remind me a lot of dinosaurs.  They live along the river banks of the Amazon rainforest of South America, so that is the scene I depicted in my mural.

Got Milt? -- Hellbender Symposium T-Shirt

This year the St. Louis Zoo hosted the 7th Hellbender Symposium, and I was asked to design the T-shirt.  It was a fun job and my first design to be printed on a shirt.  Ozark hellbenders are a threatended species of endangered giant salamander found only in Missouri, and the St. Louis Zoo has worked very hard to protect them.  This is the first place to successfully breed hellbenders in captivity, which is an enormous breakthrough for insuring the survival of the species.

To celebrate the breeding program, I drew a pair of mating hellbenders with a clutch of eggs and a plume of salamander sperm (milt), to go on the back of the shirt.  The front of the shirt says "Got Milt?"  The shirts were a big hit and I had lots of people tell me they really liked them.

Below is a link to a short documentary about the ozark hellbenders for anyone who is interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8iamcw9gmQ

Jamaican Iguana Exhibit

I recently painted this mural for the Jamaican Iguana exhibit.  It is one of the largest and most detailed that I have painted and it was an exciting job.   The Jamaican iguana is the largest native land animal on Jamaica and is critically endangered.  It is now found only in the Hellshire Hills on the mainland, but was once found all over Jamaica and on Goat Island off the coast.  I included Goat Island in the distance in the mural as a tribute to this. 

Opuntia Cactus and Grey Birch

I tried to paint only native species of plants, like Jamaican palms and grey birch, and Jamaican opuntia cactus.  The rocks are also painted to resemble the volcanic rocks found in the Hellshire Hills area. 

Panoramic image of Jamaican exhibit

Exhibit with some of the plants put in.

Ozark Hellbender Exhibit

I was very excited to paint this mural for the Ozark hellbender salamander exhibit.  Hellbenders (also known as "snot-otters," "mud-devils," "grumpus," or "water dogs") are one of the largest species of amphibian and one of my all-time favorite animals.  It is also a very important animal for the St. Louis Zoo.  The Ozark hellbender is an endangered species found only in the streams of Missouri and northern Arkansas, and the St. Louis Zoo has helped protect them from possible extinction by raising them in carefully maintained artificial streams and releasing them back into the wild.     

Panoramic image of hellbender exhibit

Because hellbenders are an important local species, I decided to go out of my way to include as many local species as possible within the mural.  These include white oak, watercress, sassafras, Ozark wild crocus, early ladies tresses (white flowers in first image), royal catchfly (red flowers), and morel mushrooms (a delicacy around here).  

And, just for fun, below is a watercolor painting I did of a hellbender a couple years ago.

Cotton-Top Tamarin Exhibit

This mural was going to be for the Three Toed Sloth, which I was kind of excited about because I like sloths and I felt sorry for this one because before they changed the lighting and before I painted it the exhibit was really dark and ugly and she spent a lot of time huddled on the floor.  However, the plan changed so now only the Cotton-top Tamarins will be living in here.  I guess I am fine with that.  At least she is in an exhibit with a skylight now.

Source: Mickey Samuni-Blank

Cotton-tops are cool too.  They have great hair. 

Now I am working on another exhibit at the Herpetarium, of which I will probably be posting pictures soon.  This one is for one of my all time favorite animals: the Ozark Hellbender Salamander. 

Mang Viper Exhibit--finished

Here are some pictures of the finished Mang Viper exhibit that I forgot to post before.

Mang Viper Exhibit

I am currently working on a mural for the Mang Viper Exhibit at the Herpetarium.  The mang viper is a beautiful snake that lives in the Hunan Province of China, known for its unique mountains and rock formations (it's where James Cameron got his inspiration for the floating islands in Avatar)

I Began with a quick and small color sketch on paper to get an idea of what the composition should be.

In the exhibit, I started by painting the sky and the most distant mountains.

Then I began painting the closer, darker mountains and adding trees, foliage, and mist.

Now I just need to add some final details to the foreground and I think I will be done.