This 19 ft. panel started the whole muralA population explosion took place in the panel!Tule elk with his tongue out (which he does in the presence of a female during mating season)Valley oak, bull tule elk, family of black-tailed deer, birches in autumn, and two wolves.
The valley oak is a star species in this panel. There is also a magic evergreen forest, below which a pair of wolves are playing. Black-tailed deer – two males, a doe, and a yearling – are at a watering stream.The bull tule elk has his tongue out, something males do during mating season, as they approach females with head held high, neck extended so she can properly appreciate his antlers.
HeavenlySparkles Totten, a local who works with rescue wolves……and wolf Heavenly, model for the mural.me with the packWolves were native to California and I painted four of them here. The lower right image was one of my source photos, with the background erased to save printer ink.
I have always had a special feeling for wolves, and have even been in their presence in the quiet golden summer night of arctic Canada listening to them talk to each other.
Stylized “naked buckwheat” – a native plant that is the main source of nourishment for the endangered Lange’s butterfly.
The foreground of nature has the endangered native Lange’s metalmark butterfly, which feeds on naked buckwheat flowers in the lower left. (source photo above) At the right in the mural is red twig dogwood, leafless in autumn.
manzanitaSource photos and details of the brush rabbit sitting near a curling manzanita tree
My intention was to show a thriving environment, FULL of life, even without people, who came late to our continent.
My source photo!Can you find four classic symbols of love?There are four hearts above and to the right of the mother mountain lion!The beginning…The “magic forest”!Mother black bear with her cubclose-up of the squirrelCan you find the three bees?nature written at the top of the panel; a magic forest; mother black bear with her cub; gray squirrel; mountain lion mom and kittens with a flicker and brush rabbit. thispanel 1 nature and panel 2 resourcefulness
