Manchot Adélie

Adélie II, 2014

I did a little sketch of a specimen of Adélie Penguin in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris in the beginning of this year.
I recently turned the pencil drawing into two versions of etchings.

First of all I printed Adélie for a print exchange project with Rona Green on the theme of animals and later I printed Adélie II with a second plate to introduce new and warmer colours.

Adélie, 2014

I remember watching a TV program about Antarctica as a child and saw the image of penguins sitting on the egg in the cold wind.
Male and female penguins take turns to incubate until the egg hatch.

It left me with a somehow strong feeling that penguin parents were the same as mine, keeping me in warm and comfortable place.  

Original sketch

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle

National Museum of Natural History was a beautiful place to be with lots of different animals including extinct ones. Lots of art students were drawing from the collection too.

I hardly buy any souvenirs for myself when I travel so drawing at museums and elsewhere is a bit like a memento. It's lovely to flip through the sketchbooks and re-visit the memory of the time and the places.

I could have easily spent another entire day or two here.

I have to go back to Paris and visit the museum again, along with so many other great museums!
I love to see you again soon Paris!