I keep looking at the cover of the fall arts calendar, and discovering new, little details (can you tell I liked Where’s Waldo as a kid?). My current favorite detail in this tableau is the staring contest going on between the snake and the fish in the fish bowl in the bottom right corner.
Isabella Kirkland is the painter who created this stunning work. Her process is fascinating. She follows the naturalist tradition of going out in the field and sketching flora and fauna, usually in their natural setting. She then creates life-sized paintings, grouping her subjects thematically. The painting above, Back from the series Taxa depicts plants and animals that have come back from the brink of extinction.
Kirkland has a great website where you can see a species key for each of her paintings. Turns out my buddies the fish and the snake are actually an Owens pupfish and an Antiguan racer!
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