Gorilla

Lovely postings. This is a wonderful drawing with strong tonal work and beautiful detail.

Many many years ago, I spent time with my uncle, who was a zoo-keeper at Bristol Zoo. There were several quite young gorillas, the great patriarch, Albert, having died during the war. I also got to see the London Zoo's Guy - happily realizing that you would upset him by gazing into his eyes: someone who though they were achieving a real relationship with a gorilla fairly recently found out differently, when he got fed up with being eyed-up, broke out of his cage, and attacked them. They are simply wonderful animals: you have caught this one - I hope it will help people realize that they are in no way inferior to ourselves: in fact, they cause far less damage to the earth than we do: they need protection from human encroachment, and anything you can do to protect them and their environment is well worth doing: human beings, sadly, are the greatest threat to life on earth - the supposedly "savage" animals are nowhere near as savagely destructive as we are .... Forgive sermon. Adopt a gorilla.

Very good drawing. Jx

Many thanks for your kind comments folks. I have fond memories of visiting Guy as a child and more recently visited the new enclosure at London zoo. It was nice to see there was much more space and a chance to do some foraging for food although being surrounded by folks with mobiles flashing away at them the Gorillas must think we are all nuts :) Best wishes Gary