Run Cheetah Run!

Moyo Chasing Lure, oil on canvas 12" x 24" original available

50% of proceeds go to Animal Ark.
larger image of painting sent on request


detail of head approx 4"x5"



"Now I can die happy!" I have witnessed cheetah at run full speed in plain view doing what they are exquistely designed for!
My favorite animal sanctuary Animal Ark in Reno Nevada, (animalark.org) has cheetah from DeWidlt Cheetah and Wildlife Sanctuary in So. Africa. There is a male coalition of Moyo and Jamar and a 8 year old female Zulu. In April I got a chance to see this spectacular event of cheetah running free at full speed. Animal Ark is one of the few places in the country that run their cheetah. Running them helps keep them heathy as cheetah are one of the few animals that do not live longer in captivity. The painting in real life is far better, the background is not one flat color like it shows here.

A long cable was laid out on a bare field in the desert, on this a motorized gizmo with a plastic bag attached is whizzed around at speeds up to 60 MPH. The cable can be laid out in different configurations to vary the runs, the day I went it had a couple of zigzags in it. The cats are let loose one at a time and we people sit quietly still in bleachers along one side. Once the lure goes out the cheetah are completely focused on it. They run so fast that really I couldn't track them with my eyes, sort of a blur then a short moment where I saw a form, the more blur, to the next place I could focus. Thrilling doesn't begin to describe how it feels to see this.

Cheetah run up to 65MPH for short distances, and change direction on a dime, using their long tails as a rudder. In the case of this work, Moyo actually caught the lure right after the moment in the painting. Because it was the first run after the snows of winter, they sent the lure out at 55MPH, too slow! he got it! Usually the lure and the cat race around the whole field, the lure is pulled into a cone, and right away they come with meat and feed the cat, like a simulated hunt.

This work Moyo Chasing Lure is 12x24" oil on canvas, the photo is missing some of the more subtle passages in the dust, which took longer to paint than the cat, the painting shows the moment he changed direction and just before he "killed" it. I used a series of my photos from the event to reconstruct the action, plus my now sound knowlege of their anatomy. Here is the photo where he was just before the painting, look close, can you believe it! if this was a person he'd be on his butt right after this, but Moyo just dug in and leaped to the upright you see in the painting.



I think painting them in motion, is so right, yet usually we see still moments in wildlife art, I think I 'll try this again, it just feels good to have them moving, Discovering how to do this in paint is a challenge, but there is one artist who made a specialty of movement in the last centuary Manfred Schatz, although I haven't tried to paint like him( he's a one of a kind, see www.russellfinkgallery.com) I did get a few ideas, the main one was nothing could be painted hard edged.

Hope you enjoy this, there will be a giclee print on canvas available you can email me for details.

as a bonus here is Zulu, this one sold for a fundraiser for Animal Ark, sorry no prints available
12"x24" oil on canvas