Chimp Sketch of the week #40

Equality and Individually Primate Paint Together

In preparation for the opening of my show tomorrow I have made this short film. Incase your not already aware based on my months of posting on the subject tomorrow in Florida my gallery show Equality and Individually opens. This is a group art show with myself and a group of chimps that live in a sanctuary in Florida. It includes five collaborative paintings that I did with the chimps and the show is designed to raise money and awareness for chimps that spent there lives in cages at medical laboratories and are now living a free life in sanctuary. This show has been a year in the making and it opens tomorrow I am so proud and thankful for my new friends at Save the chimps

Chimp Sketch of the Week # 39

Melody

This is a film showing the creation of a portrait of Melody a chimp that lives in a chimpanzee sanctuary called Save The Chimps in Florida. This a collaborative painting done with a chimp named Cheetah another resident at Save The Chimps and will be on display at gallery 14 in Vero Beach Fl in May. 

Chimp Sketch of the Week #38

The Chimp Painter

Below is a short film that talks about my newest project. A series of collaborative art works by myself, and a group of Chimpanzees that live in Sanctuary in Florida

Chimp Sketch of the week #37

Venus

Another Sketch in anticipation of my show with the chimps this May

Chimp Sketch of the Week #36

Dorothy

Dorothy was a 13 year old chimp that recently passed she lived most of her life in a laboratory but luckily was able to live a very small part of her life in sanctuary.

Dorothy was born on the first day of spring in 1998 at The Coulston Foundation in Alamogordo, NM.  Coulston loaned Dorothy to another laboratory when she was very young. After Save the Chimps took over The Coulston Foundation, they were able to secure her return. Dorothy made the journey to Florida on her 13th birthday.

To find out more about Dorothy and make a donation in her honor to help other chimps in need visit Here 

The portrait of Dorothy below will be available for purchase soon. This portrait along with many others, including some done in collaboration with chimps were created to raise money and awareness for chimps in sanitary and laboratories around North America. I will be having a joint art show with the chimps in Florida this May. More on that soon…

Chimp Sketch of the Week #34

Anna

Painted in watercolor another sketch for my Show in May in Florida more on that soon

Chimp Sketch of the Week #33

Pele

This is a sketch of  Pele a beautiful resident of Save The Chimps In Florida. it is drawn in charcoal with a little white chalk for highlights. 

Chimp Sketch of the week #32

Kallie

This is another one I did for Save the Chimps I will be posting sketches of many of the Residents of Save the chimps in the next few months as I will be doing a gallery show with them this spring and I am currently working on sketches for that show.

Chimp Sketch of the week #31

Thoto RIP

This sketch is another one I recently painted of a resident at SAVE THE CHIMPS. Thoto was a circus chimp which had all his teeth pulled out as a measure of protection for his handlers afraid he might bite them. Thoto was eventually sold into medical research and forced to live in a cage. I instantly fell in love with his face when I saw his picture and it inspired me to paint him. This beautiful chimp is a perfect example of the great work that Save the chimps do because poor Thoto was forced through most of his life as an entertainer and lab experiment but thanks to save the chimps he was able to live the last ten tears of his life as a chimp.

For a full obituary of Thoto please go HERE and please consider donating some money in his honor.

Meet Thoto in this clip from YouTube. I was hoping to meet him one day but I am so happy that I could paint his portrait and honor him and save the chimps in this way.

Chimp Sketch of the Week # 30

Here are two drawings I did of two chimps that live at SAVE THE CHIMPS in Florida they were displayed prominently and for sale at a recent fundraiser. The one on the left is DEVON and was sold, the one on the right is JORDAN and still available. They also took the portrait of Jordan and printed it on T-SHIRT as another way to raise funds as seen in CHIMP SKETCH OF THE WEEK #27 you can buy that HERE.

Chimp Sketch of the Week #27

Jordan Tee Shirt 

I recently did a few portraits for Save The Chimps in Florida a Chimpanzee Sanctuary with over 250 chimpanzee residents. They took one of them and put them on a shirt.

Buy one here I don't get a penny but its a great cause

here is the original drawing

Chimp Sketch of the week #26

Save the Chimps in Florida needs $800,000 for chimps with special needs

Chimp Sketch of the Week #25

Pepper (RIP)

I logged on to facebook the other day and I saw a post that Pepper the chimp had passed away. Pepper was born in 1970 and spent her first 27 years in research, first at a Merck, Sharp & Dohme laboratory, followed by seven years at the Buckshire Corporation. When she became too strong to control, she was sent to the NYU Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP). Pepper spent some time in breeding, but was mostly used for research, including some 307 knockdowns, 36 punch liver biopsies, one open wedge liver biopsy, six cervical biopsies, 10 lymph node biopsies, and four bone marrow biopsies. In the lab, Pepper was plagued by fear and anxiety, and would rather starve herself than face an unpleasant situation. Luckily she spent the end of her life in Sanctuary at Fauna but unfortunately so many others do not.

I never met pepper of course but reading about her in the book The Chimps Fauna Sanctuary make me feel as if I did. It would be nice if everyone reading this post would go here and make a small donation to the Fauna Foundation in Peppers honor.

References:

http://www.releasechimps.org/chimpanzees/their-stories/pepper/

The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A True Story of Resilience and Recovery by Andrew Westoll

Drawing based on photo by Frank Noelker


for a complete obituary of Pepper please click here 

Chimp Sketch of the Week #24

Toby

Toby is a chimp living at the Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary in Canada. No one is sure where Toby was born but he lived his first 24 years in a zoo in Quebec, taught to act as a human child, wear clothes and eat with utensils. He still likes to wear bracelets and sunglasses from time to time but he also shakes his head continuously as a sign of stress and anxiety. Life for Toby at Fauna is not always easy being a bit of an outsider due to coming to the sanctuary later then most and from a different situation. He has had a few altercations with the other chimps once having a finger bit clean off of his hand.

To read more about Toby and the other residents at Fauna you should read the Book The Chimps Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll and read my review of the book here www.thisviewoflife.com