Dendrobates Auratus The Green And Black Poison Frog
3' X5', Acrylic on Canvas
$1,300.00
©1997
This poison frog resides in the country of Panama and ranges all the way up to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. It is bright glossy black or deep brown. A pair of broad irregular metallic green stripes runs across the lower back and over the snout. Similarly colored bands are on the arms and legs. In some species the entire back glows with a golden sheen which is why it was named Auratus (meaning golden).
Auratus likes to travel along the leaf litter of the rain forest but can also be seen as high as 10 to 15 meters in trees, where it places its tadpoles. I encountered my first green and black poison frog in the summer of 1996 while visiting the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. We first saw them in an area known as Matapalo, on the Golfo Dulce. We were walking through the forest in the streams searching for frogs to photograph, when suddenly through the dark brown leaf litter I saw the amazing fluorescent green stripes on the black body. First there was one, and then another. Before we knew it they were everywhere!
I have faceted the canvas here into a multitude of green hues that reminded me of the species. Their black eyes against the black bodies seemed particularly malicious, yet fascinating. I am continuing to place the sharper hand painted images against the softer airbrushed images for dramatic effect.