Charcoal engraving on board  32 X 49 cm  Original SOLD    

The charcoal engraving shown here depicts a fuzzy and well insulated Tasmanian echidna met on a recent field trip to the island state. The weather down there is quite a bit cooler than here on the mainland and for comparison the pen and watercolour sketch shows one of our darker Victorian echidnas with its much shorter coat.

Primitive echidnas survived even the great dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago, adapting to habitats all across Australia and as diverse as alpine snow, tropical rainforest and even scorching deserts. Their remarkable intelligence and flexibility is something that continues to inspire me and if we leave them and their habitats alone they will continue to adapt and survive long into whatever the future may hold.