Tuesday 13 March 2018

The Lemur Tree

New painting to go on display at Tate Modern

The Lemur Tree, 2018
poster paint and pen on canvas

Five years after my trip to Madagascar and I am still painting lemurs. My latest painting, The Lemur Tree, will go on display at Tate Modern (where I am lucky enough to work) in the inaugural staff exhibition which is open to the public on Saturday the 7th and Sunday the 8th of April 2018. To see it for yourself come along that weekend to Level 6 in the Blavatnik Building at Tate Modern. It's free entry, open all weekend (until 10pm on Saturday) and there will be lots of great art on display from my Tate colleagues from all departments and sites.

This painting brings together twelve species of lemurs (of the 100+ that exist), from different regions of Madagascar (ring-tailed, indri, sifaka, aye-aye, brown lemur, red ruffed, black and white ruffed, sportive lemur, bamboo lemur, wooly lemur, mouse lemur and fat-tailed dwarf lemur). Other indigenous wildlife seen here include a predatory fossa, a chameleon and a gecko as well as birds: a hoopoe and a red-tailed newtonia. The tree is a stylised version of the endemic tapia tree, with baobab trees on the horizon. There's more flora and fauna in the grass which is composed of tiny doodles.

If you want to see some of my previous paintings, they are all on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/lloydellis