AMPHIBIOUS ATTRACTION

 

Amphibious Attraction, acrylic on canvas, 2022. 24" X 33"

Amphibians are cold-blooded animals that have a "double life". They begin in water, as jelly-covered eggs which hatch into tadpoles that breathe through gills and swim with their tails. The tadpoles change shape as they grow into adults that breathe through lungs and walk on land on four legs. There are around 4000 species of amphibians which live all over the world except the polar regions. 

The blue poison dart frog (Dendrobates tinctorius "azureus", top left) is a species of poison dart frog found in northern Brazil. Its bright, blue skin, usually darker around its limbs and stomach, serves as a warning to predators. It also secretes poisonous alkaloids from glands as a defense mechanism to potential predators. The black spots are unique to each frog, enabling individuals to be identified. Staying close to water sources, it spends most of its active time, during the day, hopping around in short leaps.

The Diane's bare-hearted glass frog (Hyalinobatrachium dianae, top right on leaf) is a recently-discovered glass frog that was found in Costa Rica. This frog gained the attention of scientists in 2015 for resembling the fictional character Kermit the Frog from The Muppets and Sesame Street fame. Like all glass frogs, it mostly spends its life on the trees and deposits its eggs on the leaves. The individual in the painting is shown guarding its eggs, which is carried out by males.

The European toad is a widespread toad living in most of Europe and western Siberia. It is nocturnal, which means it is more active at night than during the daytime when it usually lies hidden. It is the fourth most commonly-distributed amphibian in Europe. 

The long-nosed horned frog (Megophrys nasuta) of Malaysia lives among the leaf litter, where it uses its camouflage to blend in and escape predators as well as hunt for small prey such as spiders, small rodents, lizards and other frogs. Its upper eyelids and snout are drawn out into long triangular projections, forming what looks like "horns", giving the frog its common name.

The red-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas, top right) of Mexico and Central America had bright colorations of green, red, orange and blue. It is also nocturnal and had sticky pads on its toes to enable them to cling onto leaves.

Commonly found in Europe, the fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra, bottom right) has a distinctive body pattern which consists of black and yellow markings. These warning colors are employed to signal to predators that its flesh is foul-tasting. Glands on its skin secrete a poisonous fluid containing samandarin that causes severe redness and swelling if another animal bites it. Fire salamanders can have a very long lifespan; one specimen in Germany lived for more than 50 years.

The Asian edible frog (Hoplobatrachus rugulosus, center behind rock) is also known as the "tiger skin frog" to the Chinese. This frog can be found in freshwater marshes in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. It is also one of the most widely-consumed frogs in the world, where they were used in East Asian cuisine. The pictured animal is an albino, noted for the pale to white coloration.

Caecilians or apodans are a group of amphibians which resemble overgrown earthworms and have no legs. They spend most of their lives burrowing underground, feeding on grubs and worms, although a few live in ponds and streams. They are almost eyeless and usually find their prey by touch and smell. They also have small scales on their skin, like reptiles. The caecilian in the painting is a yellow-striped caecilian (Ichthyophis, bottom left), which can be found in southern and southeast Asia.

The goliath frog (Conraua goliath) is the largest living frog, growing to a maximum length of 32 cm. It is found in mid-western Africa, having a relatively small habitat range in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. Although generally staying in the rivers during the day, they often emerge on land during the night. Adult goliath frogs primarily feed on spiders, worms, and insects, such as dragonflies and locusts, but will also occasionally eat fish, other amphibians, crustaceans, small reptiles, and small mammals. The goliath frog can live up to 15 years in the wild and 21 years in captivity.

The Budgett's frog (Lepidobatrachus laevis, bottom left) is commonly found in South America and belongs to the same family as the Pac-Man frogs. It is famous for being kept as pets due to its plump appearance and intelligence. When threatened, this frog inflates its body and makes shrill screeching sounds. It feeds on other frogs, insects, and snails.

The Surinam toad (Pipa pipa, bottom right) lives in northern South America, and can be found in the bottom of rivers and ponds. It has a flat body which resembles a dried leaf, small eyes and had no tongue or teeth. Its front toes had star-like appendages which it uses to capture invertebrates and small fish when feeding. Its' underbelly had two "seams" in a T-shape.  The strangest feature for this toad is the way its mother takes care of its babies. After the eggs are laid, the male presses the eggs onto the female's back, and then they are covered in a slimy layer that only sticks to the female's skin, which gradually grows over the eggs as the female carries them for months while they develop. The eggs eventually hatch into tiny, fully-formed froglets, and the female sheds the skin layer once all the young have hatched.

Pseudis paradoxa (tadpole in center, adult on its bottom left), or more commonly known as the shrinking frog, is a species of frog that lives in the Amazon rainforest in South America. It is named for its unusual life cycle: the tadpoles of this species grow very large - up to 27 centimeters long - making them the longest tadpoles in the world. As they grow, the tadpoles gradually shrink into ordinary-sized adult frogs, only about a quarter or third of its former length. 

The African clawed frog, also known as the xenopus (Xenopus laevis, top center), is found in Africa. The xenopus does not have a tongue and uses its front limbs to shove food into its mouth when feeding. The claws on its feet are used to tear apart chunks of large food. It is fully aquatic and rarely leaves the water except to migrate to other water sources during dry weather.

Newts are mainly aquatic salamanders. The northern crested newt (Triturus cristatus, bottom left) is native to native to Great Britain, northern and central continental Europe and parts of Western Siberia. The frilly crest of skin on the male's back, which is kept from the tadpole stage, becomes larger and develops brighter colors during the mating season. It spends most of the year on land, and goes to the water to breed. The pictured individual is pursuing a dragonfly nymph.

The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum, bottom right) is a species of salamander which is also called the "walking fish". This amphibian reaches maturity without changing any part of its body (neotony), including its gills, and also has the ability to grow back lost body parts. 

The green, ball-like structures on the bottom are colonies of algae. These colonies are called marimo, a rare growth form of the alga Aegagropila linnaei, in which the algae grow into large green balls with a velvety appearance. The species can be found in a number of lakes and rivers in Japan and Northern Europe. The round shape of the marimo is maintained by gentle water currents that occasionally turns it. The best environment for that are shallow lakes with sandy bottoms. The balls are green all the way round which guarantees that the algae can photosynthesize no matter which side is turned upwards. Marimo are sometimes sold for display in aquariums, and those sold are often sourced from Europe.

Artist's statement

The artist, who has a fondness of drawing animals, puts together a variety of amphibian species into a single artwork. The freedom theme is based on the notion of bringing many different species of amphibian (frogs, salamanders and a caecilian) from all over the world together in one picture living in harmony and free to mingle with each other.

The frog is a symbol of prosperity and long life in Chinese culture. Salamanders and newts represent renewal and regeneration. The theme may also represent the freedom of living a long life of prosperity and revival.

The artist also intends to convey the concept of freedom of unity among the variety of life, as he has applied in some of his other artworks involving grouping animals of different species based on family groups or similar features. To him, freedom is not just about being free from oppression, repression or suppression of ideas - it is the freedom of interaction among several different ideas.