Heliconia Con Las Ranas (Heliconia With Frogs)
The Amazonian Poison Frog (Dendrobates Ventrimaculatus)
3'x5', Acrylic on Canvas
$1,500.00
©1997
In this painting I wanted to show the various patterns and textures of the Amazonian Poison Frog juxtapositioned against the heliconia plants, which is where so many poison frogs can be found in the rainforest. The heliconia is actually considered a weed by most of the locals in Costa Rica, but there are hundreds of different varieties of the plant, mostly identified by their beautiful flowers known as inflorescences. The reproductive organs of the various species are contained in the flower bracts located in the cup like areas of the inflorescence. Poison frogs can be seen (as well as tree frogs) in the bracts because they contain water from rain fall and are often ideal places to lay eggs for many frog species. These flowers are open only for a single day and then fall off, only to be replaced by more flowers. These plants are native to the tropics but can also be found in cloud forests but few grow at elevations greater than 6,000 feet. According to Fred Berry and John Kress, authors of Heliconia, An Identification Guide, there are over 500 species of the plant in existence today.
The frog in the painting is the Amazonian Poison Frog (Dendrobates Ventrimaculatus). It is found in the upper Amazon drainages of Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, as well as in French Guiana, with a few scattered populations in the Amazon basin proper of Brazil. The arms are covered with small black spots surrounded by a pattern of metallic blue-white lines. Dendrobates Fantasticus is also in this same family of poison frogs. The males usually favor bromeliads as the focus of their life, often spending months at a time in the water inside the funnel of the bromeliad. These frogs are quite small and if you were to hold one of these frogs, he would be no larger than your smallest fingernail. Connecting the patterned lines and spots of the frogs in the painting generates eye movement and contrast with the heliconias.