Return to Animals on Black

 Way back in the early months of the pandemic, I started a series of square paintings called Animals on Black. It was sparked by Kani (bottom row, second from the left), the name given an elephant painted on a completely black background. I loved the way the colours were heightened being surrounded by nothing. Within a few days Jerome (giraffe on black), Rhino on Black and Eagle on Black appeared. 

The collection grew and grew over the next fews years, but with Elk on Black (fifth row, far right), I moved on to other things. That was shortly after we returned from Mexico back in January of 2023.

These have been great sellers over the years. Small gallery canvas prints of the favourites have been scooped up at art markets, trade shows and from Birdsong Studio. The Canadian animals have been most popular: grizzly bear, wolf, moose, squirrel and eagle among them. Several even were featured in our book Colours of the Wild: Animals of the Americas.

As I reflected on the series it struck me that an obvious and iconic Canadian animal was noticeably absent from the collection. The beaver. I'm putting the finishing touches on that one this morning.

What other animals would fit well? Several great suggestions have already been offered:

buffalo

whale

penguin

horse (though the unicorn is sort of a horse)

What others spring to mind for you?