Curious Kibabu

100x150cm

Charcoal on paper

2016

This is the very first drawing I did for my first solo exhibition when I was 18 years old and is still one of my favourites today. This gorilla is what really first conveyed my style of large scale wildlife drawn in dark, soft, realistic and expressive charcoal. ‘Curious Kibabu’ was drawn from a reference photo I took of an old silverback that was keeping a watchful eye on the photographers taking photos from a behind the scenes viewing platform. He was very protective of his female relatives and his expression shows how he was not happy that there were a couple of male photographers in our group. Kibabu passed away from old age in 2020 but left quite an extraordinary legacy behind. As he was the perfect specimen of a lowland silverback gorilla, he travelled the world living in multiple world class zoos, procreating and adding a very generous amount of offspring to the worlds gorilla insurance policy. He was a beautiful creature that served as a great advocate for his endangered cousins in the wild, educating and fascinating the next generation of wildlife lovers and advocates. My favourite parts of this drawing are his eyes (of course) and the long, shiny black fur on his forearm.