#499 Turtles #499
by William Lum
Title
#499 Turtles #499
Artist
William Lum
Medium
Painting - Watercolor
Description
My watercolor painting of turtles I saw basking along Putah Creek at the UC Davis Arboretum. In Northern California there are three turtle species you are likely to see; Western Painted Turtle, Red-eared Slider, and the Western Pond Turtle. Of the three species, only the Western Pond Turtle is a native species. The other two species were introduced here because of the pet trade and are now common. In this painting the two turtles at the top left are the native Western Pond Turtles and the others are Red-eared sliders. I tried to carefully depict the differences between the species. The Red-eared slider obviously has a red mark on the side of the head but also noticed that the back edge of shell is serrated. The Western Pond turtle’s shell has a smooth rounded back edge and a mottled dark markings on its head with no stripes. The Western Painted Turtle which is not shown has yellow stripes on its head.
Interesting facts about our native pond turtle. During times of drought, the Western Pond Turtle can spend upwards of 200 days out of water. The Western Pond Turtle was once a large part of a major fishery on Tulare Lake, California, supplying San Francisco with a local favorite, turtle soup, as well as feed for hogs that learned to dive for it in the shallows of Hog Island, also on Tulare Lake.
This 15” X 22” watercolor was done on Arches, 140 lb, rough paper.
Uploaded
November 13th, 2020
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