Wild Life Drawing Online: Flamingos

Join us for a class with a serious splash of colour, studying the flamboyance of flamingos that populate Los Olivitos; a vast coastal lagoon in Venezuela. This rich habitat forms part of the land belonging to the indigenous Wayuu people, and is the nesting ground of the largest population of flamingos in the Caribbean. It is also home to several endangered species including manatees, coastal caimans and great anteaters. 

We will be joined online by Lourdes Grollimund, the CEO of Mama Tierra. This Swiss non-profit has been working alongside the Wayuu indigenous peoples to achieve social change, conserve lands and showcase traditional craftsmanship since 2015.. As well as telling us about her work, Lourdes will be translating for our second guest of the evening, Dr. Lermith Torres. As one of the world’s leading experts on flamingos, Lermith plays a key role in Mama Tierra’s Flamingo Project. Through a combination of animal rescue, research and educational projects for local children, the project is helping to protect the fragile ecosystem of Los Olivitos. 

The class will be led by artist Jennie Webber, who will begin with an introduction to observational drawing and her top tips for capturing flamingos on your pages in all their pink perfection. The class is open to all abilities, and Jennie will be on hand with lots of creative guidance throughout the session. There will be time for you to ask the experts plenty of questions, so you will come away with not only some great sketches but a greater understanding of these birds and their habitat. The basic materials you need to take part are some paper, a pencil, a sharpener and a rubber, but Jennie will also be using pastels to capture the tones of the flamingo's feathers, so if you'd like to do the same we recommend having some to hand too. We will be drawing from reference images provided by Dr Torres, which will be emailed to you (along with instructions and the Zoom link) before the event is due to start. As with all our online sessions, we will send out a recording of the class afterwards so that you can watch it back as many times as you like.

For this class we will divide our donation; 25% of profits will go to Mama Tierra and 25% will go to NGO Mangle (Dr Torres’ flamingo conservation program).