Artist unknown (National Zoo)
Today I visited the Invertebrate House at the National Zoo, where I saw this remarkable churning, twisting portrait of an octopus. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the name of the artist. The painting looks like acrylic or oil, and is about six feet tall - very impressive, but not as impressive as the real giant octopus across the room!
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It's hard to see from the JPEG, but it kinda looks like the brush strokes are very forceful, like the animal.
I'm pleased to discover your move to scienceblogs. Congratulations!
Beautiful painting. A fine expression of the style as exemplified by Charles R. Knight who was so well known for his paleo-illustrations of the 1st half of the 20th C. I'm not sure if there are any in DC but I've been totally in love with his work since I would spend hours absorbed by the displays at the Field Museum in Chicago where some of Knight's finest examples exist(ed). His work has become a bit dated and I'm afraid it's getting covered over with fat photo lush super graphics with modern interpretations of the paleoworld, and as fine as they are, they seem like just so much special effects....Knight, for me, transcended that and made the paleoworld one in which I could live.
Next time I'm in DC I will hope to see this upclose. Cheers, doug
Nice octopus painting, a friend of mine (Anthony Springford) paints a number of invetebrates.