Hi from Charles

Hi from Charles
12-04-2008

I just discovered this forum a couple of days ago and wish I had known about it sooner. Thank you to the founders and moderators for creating and maintaining such a fantastic website. I've been reading and exploring the site as time permits and am amazed at how much information is available here.

My name is Charles Alexander. I am a wildlife artist and natural history writer based in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

Prior to jumping headlong into an art career, I was a keeper at the Memphis Zoo. I started volunteering there when I was 12, then got my first paying job in the zoo nursery (handraising infant lowland gorilla, greater kudu, duiker, etc.) when I was barely 18. I then moved on to work in lots of different areas of the zoo as a keeper, especially in mixed exhibits of hooved stock and birds. Species that I've worked with include: Nilgiri tahr, chamois, lowland anoa, Przewalski's horse, Pere David deer, gaur, white-naped crane, hog deer, bongo, dik-dik, goliath heron, bontebok, Abysinnian ground hornbill, aardwolf, and black/bay/blue/yellow-backed duikers.

Currently, I'm working on a new collection of oil paintings for a one-man exhibition based upon my recent field research in Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Landscape subjects featured in the exhibition will include: Ngorongoro highlands and crater, the Serengeti/Masai Mara grasslands and kopjes, the Virunga volcanoes, and the volcanic Rift Valley lakes. New wildlife subjects will include mountain gorilla families, mating black rhinos, sparring Grevy's stallions, the chaos of the Great Migration river crossings, lions fighting hyenas, the elephants of Tarangire, and Lake Nakuru's masses of lesser flamingos. In all, I will complete 30-40 new oils for the exhibition. Some of these will be very large-scale paintings.

I'm attaching a look at two small (8x10") pastel portraits-- part of a series that I am creating on an ongoing basis to benefit the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The first portrait is of Mabali, the second Lomami. Both were orphaned by bushmeat hunting and ended up at Lola after a long and harrowing journey that few infant bonobos survive. Lomami is missing several fingers--they were cut off by a "sorcerer" for use in black magic (as were parts of his penis). Fortunately, both youngsters have adapted well to the love and care showered on them by the staff of Lola, though Lomami is understandably still quite shy. Over 50 orphaned bonobos now live at Lola ya Bonobo, comprising the world's largest captive group of this endangered primate.

Lomami's portrait is featured in Art in Action: Nature, Creativity, and Our Collective Future, a new book co-produced by the Natural World Museum and the United Nations Environment Program.

In addition to field work researching animals in the wild, I continue to visit zoos at every opportunity. Some of my favorites here in the USA include San Diego, Bronx, Ft. Worth, St. Louis, Miami, and Cincinnati.

Favorite species encountered in zoo collections over the years include: Bulwer's wattled pheasant, Somali wild ass, Sumatran rhino, douc langur, proboscis monkey, bushdog, kagu, Blyth's tragopan, and horned guan.

Upcoming zoo trips will include a visit to Dvůr Králové Zoo to see the northern white rhinos.

Attached Images

	Mabali resized.jpg (24.1 KB, 28 views)
	Lomami resized.jpg (25.1 KB, 25 views)

12-04-2008

You are an amazing wildlife painter Charles! Welcome to the forum.

12-04-2008

Welcome to the Zoobeat forums Charles, looking forward to your input

12-04-2008

Those are amazing portraits- so accurate I thought they were photos at first glance....

12-04-2008

wow those are some amazing paintings ! look forward to seeing more
stu

13-04-2008

Welcome and enjoy this forum!

__________________
www.zooantwerpen.be & www.planckendael.be
www.zoocrew.eu

13-04-2008

Hi Charles

Lomami's portraits are just stunning, I am biased due to my love of bonobos! Have you run into Vanessa Woods while at Lola ya Bonobo? I am editor of the Australasian primate Society journal and would love to include you work and promote you in it.

There is a nice diverse range of people here, I think you will enjoy the forum!

Jo

14-04-2008

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! I am just wallowing in all the zoo info, tips, and photos. Just a fantastic opportunity.

Jo-- Yes, I correspond off and on with Vanessa, but we have yet to meet face to face. She is a truly fantastic, dedicated, and talented person. One in a billion, really. She just moved from Germany to the USA to work at Duke University. I hope to get over there and meet her-- and see the lemurs too! I would be more than happy for my work to appear in your journal. You may use the above two-- or wait for something new. I'll be painting a dozen new Lola portraits within the next 6 months or so.

__________________
Charles Alexander