[Sold] Twiga the Giraffe

This is the first in a series of fountain pens featuring African wildlife where Marian Binder has rendered a realistic portrait of the animal, but for one thing: the colours! She has gone Andy Warhol on the hair, the leaves and the trees.

Marian loves wildlife and loves African myths and legends to do with wildlife, so in researching an animal whose shape complements the slim shape a fountain pen, she was enchanted by the story of how Twiga, the giraffe, got to have such a long neck. According to mythology, when god created the animals he spoke with each one and Twiga (the Shona name for giraffe) stretched her neck as far as she could heavenward to hear him more clearly. As a gift, god gave her a long slender neck that enabled her to reach the highest branches.

Marian has painted Twiga nibbling delicately on acacia leaves, her favourite meal, with a row of silhouetted acacia trees in the background, and acacia leaves across the top of the cap. Acacias are very clever: when an animal grazes on them, they turn their leaves bitter and communicate with others nearby, who do the same, so as to prevent being overgrazed. However giraffes are also clever and when they graze on acacia trees, they gradually move upwind which ensures that they always find sweet leaves.

Marian, whose work can be seen on her website made.marian.co.za is a phenomenal wildlife, people, and botanical artist. Her art is world-class, as evidenced for example by her recent invitation to be one of 44 acclaimed local and international botanical artists to create the Grootbos Floregium, Africa’s first floregium of botanical art, hosted by Grootbos Private Nature Reserve. When not painting flowers, Marian paints portraits that range in subject matter from wild dogs to warthogs to humans, and in every case she captures the essence of her subjects.

Nib:

Available in Jowo #6 in polished steel. Please select Fine, Medium or Broad in the check-out.