THE WATERING HOLE

The Watering Hole, acrylic on canvas, 2021. 30" X 24"

The painting depicts a large group of African animals gathering to drink at a watering hole. The overall composition of the animals' activity in the painting is based on the idea of the "waterhole truce" put forward by author Rudyard Kipling (author of The Jungle Book), where animals observe a sort of truce around watering holes and prey animals do not have to be on guard from predators in the vicinity, as they share the watering hole. 

The African animals featured are elephants, giraffes, lions, zebra, rhinoceros, impala, ostriches, Cape buffalo, wildebeest, baboons, cheetah, leopard, warthog, meerkat, aardvark, hippos, crocodile, shoebill and red-billed hornbill. Flamingoes and storks frequent African waterholes as well.

Giraffes spread their legs when drinking to increase their stability when lowering their head down. Predators like lions normally use watering holes as prey gathering sites before hunting them, but sometimes they also drink the water. The leopard in the top right of the painting is resting on a branch, unaware of the activity in the watering hole. 

The mountain in the background is based on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest mountain.

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