Back when I was at Art College in the late 80s, I used to visit Edinburgh Zoo a lot to draw the animals. Specifically I wanted to draw the apes and the ape I ended up drawing the most was the alpha male Lowland Gorilla called SamSam. He was pretty laid back, sedentary, a bit overweight, so he would sit for hours while I drew his portrait. Though I was careful to avoid eye contact with him as that constitutes aggressive behavior for a Gorilla. I knew my place, he was the boss.From those drawings I did a number of etchings and finally a 4'x6' painting of SamSam, which is still hanging in my parents house. I think it's my most successful painting.
While doing this drawing ( steel pen only , no pencil ) I Googled SamSam to find out what had happened to him. There's a thing called the Gorilla Studbook, which gives details of each of these animals lives.
This is SamSam's entry
I wasn't expecting to be quite so sad out this.
