Race for Survival

In January 2010 Pollyanna made her first return journey to China in fifteen years, travelling far beyond the legendary Great Wall in search of some of the country’s most endangered species. Initially Pollyanna braved temperatures as low as -29º, journeying to the rarely visited extreme North East corner of China where Wild Siberian Tigers have been sighted. Here she captured sketches which inspired this dramatic painting.
Wild Siberian Tigers have been sighted in the Hunchun Nature Reserve in the transborder area between Russia and China which provides a ‘corridor’ of habitat so tigers can disperse from Russia and repopulate areas of China where they once lived. Poaching of tigers for traditional Chinese medicine, along with over-hunting of their prey species, wiped out populations in China. Yet much of their habitat remained intact, and in 2003 an adult tiger was photographed for the first time by a remote camera, operated by the Wildlife Conservation Society who established the reserve. However research suggests that fewer than 20 of the tigers exist in the wild in China. Pollyanna was able to sketch the tigers (right) in a breeding and conservation centre established to create a pool of Amur tigers with a pure genetic bloodline, with the eventual aim of re-introducing the cats into this remote mountainous region which they once roamed in large numbers. The centre currently houses 33 tigers, and for five days, Pollyanna spent eight hours a day in a vehicle inside their huge compounds observing and sketching the magnificent cats. “It was a unique opportunity to watch Amur Tigers in their natural habitat” Pollyanna commented “I was able to sketch as they interacted with one another, and I gained so much inspiration for new paintings in these surroundings. Seeing first hand the way the snow lays on their fur, or becomes encrusted on their feet and tails will enable me to paint the tigers in the snow with a realism and accuracy which would have been completely lacking if I hadn’t made this expedition.”

Details:

Image size : 17.5" x 13"

There are just 250 prints in this edition, each individually numbered and signed by Pollyanna

Price : £80.00

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£100.00

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