In this section are copies of original works of art. All of them are dedicated to helping us live according to unconditional love and compassion, which is the foundation of our peaceful means of bringing true and lasting peace to all of God's creatures, whether they are human beings or other animals.
(Artwork - 106)
Tiger (Panthera tigris)
The tiger is the largest member of the family Felidae, which includes many species that are little known. I love sketching cats. This is a commissioned painting and although I only finished it last week I’ve had people both positive and negative about it, liking it because I didn’t make the face “fierce” but disliking it for the same reason. The important thing is that the person for whom it was intended loves it, and the expression IS true to life, based on literally dozens of sketches and photographs I’ve taken of various zoo specimens over a half a century, plus many more in my reference photo collection.
Tigers were, historically, found from the eastern border of Europe east all the way to the Pacific coast and from Russian tundra south to the tropical jungles of Java and Bali and southern India. They thus inhabited a wide range of habitat, including open grasslands and dense forests and cold, snowy boreal forests.
It’s been estimated that about 93 percent of their historical range is no longer accessible to them, due to human action, and several distinct subspecies are extinct while others are critically endangered, including the one I have painted, found on the island of Sumatra. Wherever they occur they are protected by law, but that does not stop poaching for their pelts, bones, blood and other body parts for which there is an insatiable black market demand.
Tigers are hugely variable in background colour and in the distinctive stripe patterns. Zoos have previously crossbred different geographic variations. But generally they are probably among the top dozen or so most widely recognized of all mammal species, and feature enormously in popular art and literature. Oddly, when I was asked to do this painting, I was already doing a smaller painting of a tiger, in oils, but the buyer wanted a different kind of pose, showing the head from the side, and so I left off that painting to do this one.
It is in acrylics on compressed hardboard, and is 24 by 30 inches.
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Copyright © Barry Kent MacKay
Barry describes himself as a Canadian artist/writer/naturalist.
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