"Uninvited"

There is no more unpredictable combat than that of a mother defending her young. In the leopard, maternal instinct transforms one of Africa's most discreet felines into an absolute fighting machine — without warning, without negotiation.

In this painting, the male has come too close. The cubs are hidden in the hollow of a tree. The mother is there, between them and him. This is not a threat — it is a certainty.

I worked on a panoramic composition that stages the two leopards like a deadly dance. The bodies move in every direction, the tails rise like accents on the canvas — that explosive energy, impossible to contain. The dust raised by the confrontation envelops the scene and brings out the coat of both felines, their musculature caught in the instant, their aggressive posture. Everything is movement, tension, power.

I called this painting 'Uninvited'. Because this male was not welcome. And he is beginning to understand that.