For sale on eBay: Original paintings by Oakland Zoo animals
By Carolyn Jones on September 9, 2014 at 12:59 PM
Oakland’s arts scene just keeps getting hotter. Even its zoo animals are getting in on it.
A giraffe, otter, chimpanzee, elephant and other creatures at the Oakland Zoo have created vivid and colorful paintings that the zoo is auctioning to raise funds. The framed paintings, which include photos of the animal artistes at work, are for sale on eBay.
Styles vary from the minimalist, tri-color masterwork by Drew, a squirrel monkey, to the rainbow blurred fantasia by Scrat, a large lizard. All the animals’ works are in the impressionist school, although each artist has highly unique expressions.
Bidding opened Friday. By Tuesday, no piece had more bids than a Seurat-like work by a Madagascar hissing cockroach who goes by the moniker Nameless. His piece had received 11 bids, driving the price to $77.
Bidding ends Sept. 14. All proceeds go to the Zoo’s conservation efforts for animals in the wild.
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| Amy and Jennifer the lemurs work on their collaborative painting. |
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| Ben the giraffe paints his work of art. |
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| Ben's finished product. |
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| Woody, a Nigerian dwarf goat, adorably painting with his hooves. |
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| Woody's finished product. |
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| Drew the squirrel monkey, with an assist from a few friends, works on his painting. |
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| Drew's finished product. |
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| Ginger, a North American river otter, painted this work. |
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| Scrat the chuckwalla paints. |
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| Bernie the chimpanzee, who turns 21 this year, and his finished works. |
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| A Madagascar hissing cockroach uses its legs to paint the canvas. |
The Cincinnati Zoo has a similar animal-painting fund-raising program:
Elephant Artists!
Brush in Trunk Package includes:
- Custom Elephant Painting featuring the colors of your choice.
- Two, high-quality photos of the artist creating your one-of-a-kind work of art.
Money raised through the sale of artwork helps the Zoo support the International Elephant Foundation.
Rhino Rembrandts!
Support rhino conservation by purchasing original works of art by Seyia and Faru and buy our very own “Rhino Rembrandt”!
These one-of-a-kind masterpieces make wonderful gifts for rhino enthusiasts and nature-lovers alike, and are perfect, unique gifts for that “person who has everything.”
Proceeds from painting sales go directly to rhino conservation. Your generous contribution will help ensure that all rhino species and the wild places where they live will be ours to share for generations to come. Learn More >
Animals that Paint on YouTube
YouTube has quite a few clips on animals painting. A compilation of animals is Amazing Animals that Paint! (2:25). A particularly fascinating clip is The Truth about Elephant Paintings and gives a history on elephants painting. Basically, the first elephant documented to be given paints was in New York in 1940, and gradually this idea spread. Thailand which has numerous elephant painting programs now didn't incorporate the painting elephant in their tourism programs until 1977.
I first became aware of elephants painting from the 1996 book When Elephants Weep, the Emotional Lives of Animals by Jeffrey Masson. An amazing book, and a very high recommend. In one particular story an elephant was noticed to be picking up chalky pebbles in its zoo enclosure and doodling on the ground. A proactive keeper noticed the behavior and introduced paints to the elephant, which was a huge success! So big in fact that the other elephants wanted a piece of the action. The book is a collection of stories that researchers, anthrozoologists, scientists, etc have archived because they couldn't explain the unusual or unprecedented behavior of animals they witnessed. Masson dug through archives to uncover spectacular stories and then wrote them up from a psychological perspective. I love these kinds of books, and if anyone knows of others along this theme, please let me know!
