Endangered
These are not called marsupial for what seems rather arbitrary like the Lemur Leaf Frog. The females of these frogs actually have a pouch on their back. The male tucks the eggs into the pouch after they are fertilized. The eggs are the largest of all the amphibians apparently, or at least the largest known ones. When the eggs have progressed to be completely developed frogs, they are released at a water source. The frogs range was once all the way from Ecuador up into Costa Rica. It is thought they have gone completely from Costa Rica and Western Panama. The reason for their disappearance as with as many as 200 other species of frogs is believed to be the disease chytridiomycosis which is caused by a fungal infection. They were sighted for the first time in Ecuador again in 2018, having been thought extinct there since 2005. Their area of Ecuador has the most deforestation in the country unfortunately, so hopefully their forest can be saved or they will certainly end up truly extinct there. I would love to be able to see them sometime. I'd also like to hear them, the male's vocalization has been described as sounding like the pulling of a champagne cork!
Not as good of a picture as I usually try to take of my paintings, but it made me smile. One of the dogs was anxious for me to finish so she could go on a walk. She was trying to be patient while hanging out near me, but also hoping I'd realize she deserved to go out and patrol the neighbourhood. The other dog you can't see, he was asleep underneath the easel. Because I use lavender spike oil instead of turpentine or something toxic like that, the room I'm in always smells very strongly of lavender. I think it must be pretty relaxing for the dogs. Along with seeing our girl, you can see my sketch. They are on my hand-me-down easel (almost every single piece of furniture in our house is second-hand). It is meant for plein air so I could actually paint from life. I wonder if I could do that sometime with these animals. I should talk to the wildlife reserve in Oregon. They are 4 hours away from here. I could probably at least paint the cheetahs but they aren't considered endangered. Oh, along those lines. I've decided that I will go ahead and paint a few not endangered but threatened animals. Those I will sell to help raise money to fund the project along with my and soon selling of stickers on Etsy too (but not yet, so no link). It would be nice to recognize animals that are close to becoming endangered, but they would be outside of the series so would not be something I felt I had to hold on to for eventual shows. Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do about storing all these paintings until they can dry. Since I'm not used to oils still, it is a bit novel to me to have them still wet days later. Acrylics dry so quickly. I am loving being able to keep working with the oils and have the different layers work with each other, but it is still pretty novel to me.