Afternoon with a smiling Orangutan
Watercolor and text by Frits Ahlefeldt
Orangutan looks so incredible like us, they almost look even more like us, than us. I stepped a bit onward today in my search for new animals to draw up in watercolors. Stumbled across a both seriously, honestly and sadly smiling, shy looking orangutan
Orangutans are among the most endangered animals on this troubled planet, threatened by both habitat-loss, poaching and deforestation. Still the orangutans look like they take life easy in ways that reminds me of some untroubled, happy, ancient and life beaten humans, I have met.
I have painted a number of watercolors of animals in clothes now. But this orangutan was in some way harder to paint. It somehow didn’t seem to come out like an animal in clothes… it looked more like just another guy doing his best to get through life with a smile
Frits Ahlefeldt: sketchbook and stories 