Fangs

Description

This 9 x 12″ painting was inspired by a jewelry store in Scottsdale, Arizona. I walked into a jewelry store/souvenir store. The two stores were joined by an open wall; beautiful silver, gold and turquoise on one side, and skeletons of bats, turtles, and tarantulas preserved in epoxy or something, along with hot sauce, novelties and other souvenirs on the other. I had no business being in the jewelry store, considering turquoise is a weakness of mine. On top of the corner of one of the jewelry cabinets was a 4-foot plexi box, inside which was a taxidermied diamondback rattlesnake; a former tenant of the Sonora Desert. He was in strike pose, and I just had to do a few snaps.

Even at that time, I knew I would do a painting of the creature. At home, I sketched it out, did the preliminary raw umber ‘drawing’ over the sketch, with my paint brush, then did a wash of Dr. Ph Martin’s dyes, which, at the time, seemed too heavy. I thought I’d ruined it. I thought I’d killed the rattlesnake. But, after some reworking of the background with warm acrylic pigment and white, I called out the snake with cooler colors, and he appeared, more colorful and better than I thought he would.

As always, I learn about the animals I paint. Rattlers: rattles are made of keratin–the same material human nails and hair are made of. How cool our Creator cross-purposes art supplies! There are the most of them in Arizona. Yikes. I’ve been in the desert quite a bit over there, and now I’m glad I’ve only met the one in the box! Less than 1% of rattlesnake bites end in death (that makes me feel better). Their fangs have hinges, which collapse back into their mouths when they’re not showing them. Their eyes have vertical pupils. I saw this from 10″ away once, when a neighborhood rattler handler put one back in a terrarium and put the cover on. I got really up and close. Little guy’s eyes were truly creepy and, yes, vertical! There are tons more facts you can look up at your leisure. Like most animals–and humans–these are miracles of creation and, well, I just had to paint one!

All pieces are unframed unless otherwise noted.