Ancient Life
Minimalist Mammoth, 2022.
Digital.
A woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) in the snow, in a minimalist watercolor style. Possibly the most iconic ice age animal, the woolly mammoth ranged across Europe, Northern Asia, and some of North America during the Pleistocene. Watercolor is traditionally a minimalist medium, using swathes of color and loose brushstrokes to suggest form. This especially lends itself to painting snowy scenes, which inspired me to paint the mammoth.
Homesick Ubirajara, 2021.
Digital.
In 1995, an unusual fossil was excavated and likely illegally exported out of Brazil to Germany. In 2020, it was described as Ubirajara jubatus, and is the first feathered nonavian dinosaur to be found in the southern hemisphere. Due to its importance and the circumstances of its extraction, Brazilian paleontologists have been campaigning for the return of the fossil, but so far German institutions have not budged. There is a long history of colonialism and fossil theft in paleontology.
Edmontosaurus, 2021.
Digital.
Edmontosaurus annectens having a snack. The "duckbilled" Edmontosaurus is one of the best-understood dinosaurs. They were terrestrial herbivores, with a wide beak for cropping tough plants, a continually replacing battery of teeth for chewing, and side facing eyes to watch for predators; pretty important considering they lived alongside Tyrannosaurus! The hooflike front toes and fleshy display crest are based on soft tissue fossils.
Saurornitholestes and Gorgosaurus, 2021.
Pen and watercolor.
Panting with stress, this Saurornitholestes langstoni scrambles up a sycamore relative (Platanus sp.) just in time to escape two curious young Gorgosaurus libratus. A Saurornitholestes jawbone bearing tyrannosaur toothmarks was found in the Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Park formation in Alberta, Canada, suggesting intraguild predation by either Gorgosaurus or Daspletosaurus.
