Florida Wildlife Oil Painting

One spring afternoon visiting Clyde Butcher’s Big Cypress Gallery, two large alligators were sunning themselves on the bank. They looked so smug and well-fed, I dared to get pretty close to take a photo of them. There is magic for me in this particular spot with its huge cypresses on the dark waterway. I tend to associate alligators with the shape of the island of Cuba and with Fidel Castro’s evil regime, so while painting the scene in my studio, I took to calling these two ‘gators Raul and Fidel. See if you can figure which is which (hint: one has its mouth open...).