Meet Artist Debra Patrick
Artist Debra Patrick is known for her extraordinary and detailed portraits of both people and animals. When asked about her wildlife art, she wrote:
I was a "military brat," growing up on bases around the world and did not come to appreciate all that nature had to offer until I moved to Marin County as an adult. My parents had never been much for camping and hiking, so what a revelation to suddenly be close to the Headlands, Mt. Tam and numerous state and national park campgrounds and hiking trails to explore on the weekends.
Once in a while I would spot a bobcat or coyote, but it was actually in my own yard around dusk or in the evenings that wildlife would frequently appear - deer, raccoons, squirrels and skunks mainly. Even a pair of foxes came nightly to sleep on scaffolding that was across my dining room window for a couple of months.
Being able to watch and sketch them from only three feet away was a wonderful experience. And visits to WildCare with my daughter gave me another chance to observe all sorts of wildlife close up.
As an artist, I had always specialized in human portraits, but the idea of painting wildlife really intrigued me.
As a member of the Marin Society of Artists, I started noticing how artists around me were creating wonderful pieces featuring animals, birds, butterflies and even insects. MSA was a welcoming place to talk about shared interests in wildlife art. I now love the challenge of capturing each animal's unique personality, especially through their eyes. Conveying their individual traits, such as strength, vulnerability, intelligence or playfulness, is my goal.
Since wildlife encounters can be fleeting, I take photos whenever possible and later paint a finished portrait using either pastels or oils. The paintings are multi-layered, with the first layer being a general blocking out of large color areas, in dark masses. In each successive layer , I add lighter colors and more detail, ending with the final layer of fur or feathers for texture and highlights to make them pop.
Painting wildlife not only brings great pleasure to artists such as myself, but sharing it can create conversations about critical conservation issues, such as destruction of natural habitat or the need to protect endangered species.
Wildlife art can have a powerful emotional appeal that will hopefully encourage those who view it to become guardians of nature.
Special thanks to Debra and the Marin Society of Artists for sharing their work with WildCare!
Trapping doesn’t solve a nuisance animal problem.
Animals are attracted to your property because it provides something they want and need. Usually what attracts them is access to FOOD, WATER or SHELTER.
If your property provides food, water or shelter, animals will find it.
If you borrow a trap or hire a trapper to trap and remove an animal that has moved into a cozy den space under your deck, or one that eats your cat’s leftover food, you are then leaving an attractively open space (or an easy food source) on your property for the next wild creature that comes along. You can trap that animal too, but what about the next one?
Unless whatever is attracting the animal is removed, other animals will fill the vacant space.
When you hire a pest control company to come out and trap a nuisance animal, or if you do it yourself, legally the animal must be released within 100 yards of the capture site, or the animal must be killed– AND trappers are not legally required to tell you this. That’s right. California law requires trappers to release a trapped animal essentially back on your property, or to euthanize the animal.
Sometimes trappers try to hide this fact but telling clients they will relocate the animal to some green and healthful spot. While this may sound like a good option, keep in mind that it is not legal for a trapper (or anyone) to relocate, so most likely he is lying to you and will instead kill the animal. Also keep in mind that relocation is actually incredibly cruel.
In the vast majority of cases, relocation results in the death of the animal. Imagine an animal removed from its den, comfort zone and all its known food and water sources. Imagine dropping that animal, confused and terrified, into another animal’s territory. What is likely to happen? The relocated animal will be beaten up and chased away, and will eventually starve to death, or die of exposure. In this situation, most wildlife will perish. Most of the problems people have with wildlife happen during spring and summer’s baby season, so trapping often separates a mother from her dependent young, leaving them behind to die from starvation, dehydration and hypothermia. Relocation of nuisance wildlife is never a good option to solve a wildlife problem.
The WildCare Solutions Difference
WildCare Solutions works with concepts known as “humane eviction” and “humane exclusion.” Humane eviction means that we apply our knowledge of wildlife behavior and natural history to motivate the animal(s) to leave on their own. Humane exclusion means that we remove what attracts the animals to your property, so the animals are “excluded” from your property when we close up entry holes and make den spaces inaccessible.
Our approach is safe, legal, humane and effective. WildCare will never euthanize healthy animals.
Trapping doesn’t work and can be very cruel. Choose the humane, and ultimately most effective method for dealing with nuisance wildlife— WildCare Solutions! Call us at 415-456-7283 today!