Zuri’s Tail 29.5 x 31 tiger watercolor
Here we have Zuri again. He’s the same tiger that I painted featured in Zuri’s Awareness and Zuri’s Step. When I took this photo, Zuri was being extremely playful and bouncing around his enclosure. He was doing it for his sole audience, me! He had a little shelter and he playfully leapt onto it. He then planted himself, faced me, and jumped down. He pranced about a bit before settling down in the corner where I was sitting and I spent some time with him. The moment I captured in this painting is Zuri on top of his shelter while he stared at me. After I painted Zuri, I realized I had unconsciously painted a little stripe on his back right flank. It was extremely similar to a little stripe that my cat Smudge had at the time. I found this accident fascinating, and often joked to my friends that this wasn’t solely a painting of Zuri, but also of Smudge as he saw himself. It’s just another reason this painting is particularly special to me and I’m not sure that I could ever part with it.
Posted: October 8, 2009