Siamese Fighting Fish is decked out in a kaleidoscope of colours, from yellow, red and orange to violet, blue and green. The spines in its fins and tail are spread wide, fanning out like silk, and white spots cover its body. Mixed media painting using watercolour and gouache. Copyright © 2022 Patricia Nolan
Frog in a Fog, with bright green skin, red eyes, black slit pupils and orange toes, climbs up to a lichen-covered branch to look out through the mist, the tropical forest reflected in its pupils. Digital painting. Copyright © 2022 Patricia Nolan
Chameleon on a Branch curls its blue tail as it grips the grey branch tightly, displaying multi-coloured white-spotted skin, with an orange, ridged spine, a magenta belly, and a purple head. Mixed media painting using watercolour, colour pencil, wax crayon and gouache. Copyright © 2022 Patricia Nolan
Monarch Caterpillar on Milkweed, striped brightly in yellow, black and white, with its antennae erect, munches on the pale green, red-veined leaves of milkweed, an all-important plant key to its survival as and transformation into a butterfly. Watercolour painting. Copyright © 2022 Patricia Nolan
Spirits of the Forest - Painted Turtle is tattooed with watershield flowers and surrounded by coontails, lily pads, water smartflower, aquatic grass, pitcher plants, bulrushes and trembling aspen. Painted turtles are always happy encounters, whether swimming or sunning on a log, an experience I anticipate every time I go canoeing in Algonquin, Temagami, and other wild areas of Ontario, Canada. Watercolour painting. Copyright © 2022 Patricia Nolan
Frog at Moss Edge sits on soft green moss on the forest floor, anticipating opportunity. Seen in the painting, though not in the photo, the sparkle of dewdrops on the moss and of water droplets in the mist is an effect of pigments containing the mineral genuine fuchsite. Watercolour painting. Copyright © 2022 Patricia Nolan

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All living things intrigue me. The colours and patterns of many species are hard to resist as an artist, and the strangeness of animals in species much more distant from our own is fascinating. From insects to turtles, I would love to paint them all.