Squidge, the penguin who paints great abstract works!

Though there are many artists in the world of birds and animals, this Humboldt penguin is quite unique because his paintings are his own creations, and his works are being auctioned as part of a fund-raising programme

Squidge doing a painting

He is the new sensation in the world of art. Squidge, that is his name and he is a permanent resident in Cornish Seal Sanctuary, at Gweek, near Helston in the United Kingdom, where he was born four years back. Yes, you guessed it right! This ‘celebrity artist’ is no human, he is a penguin.
Squidge started painting sometimes back as part of the daily enrichment activities with the animal care team, and they quickly recognized his talent. The sanctuary authorities said this Humboldt penguin made his debut in painting with his first canvas of abstract work with a stunning rendition of colourful penguin footprints, which captured the attention of the officials. Now this web-footed wonder is hoping to use his talent to secure his home’s future for years to come, as the authorities are going to auction his authenticated works. The Sanctuary officials are hopeful that Squidge’s creations would raise £1.3 million at the auction as part of its ‘Fund Our Future’ campaign for four new pools in Sanctuary and his brand new home. More than art, such activities are key to helping animals to remain engaged and active, as well as encouraging them to exhibit natural behaviours, according to them.

Squidge selecting pigments for a painting

Squidge was born in the sanctuary four years ago. His parents Gilbert and Laura still live on the premises of the sanctuary but they are unable to take care of him. He was reared by the sanctuary employees with whom he has a special bond now.

“We’re always looking for new ways to keep our animal residents at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary curious, active, and enriched on a daily basis,” said Animal Care Specialist Polly Frier. “Painting with Squidge is a voluntary activity and just one way we boost his stimulation as part of his regular care routine – and the results are pretty spectacular.”
If you’ve never seen art by a penguin before, it’s just as beautiful and chaotic as it sounds, and it absolutely captures Squidge’s cheeky personality, she said, adding that the little penguin was hand-reared by the team after his parents were unable to take care of him. Since then the team says he has grown into a confident penguin and they always knew he had a creative side. Instead of picking up a paint brush, Squidge prefers the more tactile painting process of using his flippers, she added. He has his own style of selecting the colours that makes his works unique.

Artists in the animal kingdom
Squidge is not the one and only non-human artist! There are many ‘trained artists’ there. While male Bowerbirds, which live in Australia and New Guinea, are known to make highly artistic nests on their own to impress and attract the female birds, there are animals that get trained by humans. According to researches, painting may be pleasurable to animals as well, as is the case of human beings.

Congo, the chimpanzee that made headlines with his art in 1950s

There is an interesting case of a male chimpanzee, Congo, who was born in 1954 at London Zoo. When Congo was two years old, the British zoologist and artist Desmond Morris gave him a pencil. “He took it and I placed a piece of card in front of him. Something strange was coming out of the end of the pencil. It was Congo's first line. It wandered a short way and then stopped. Would it happen again? Yes, it did, and again and again,” Morris said later. He and his art were featured on the British television programme Zoo Time, and in 1957 the Institute of Contemporary Arts featured his work in an exhibition. According to some people, his style is “lyrical abstract impressionism”, and he had a sense of coherence and sense of intention while painting. If his paintings or brushes were taken away before he felt he was done, he whined until they were returned to him. If he had completed his work, he refused to continue painting even at Morris's prompting. Congo died in 1964, at the age of ten years. In 2005, a set of three paintings by Congo, who created more than 400 works in his lifetime, were sold at auction for £14,400. Interestingly, in the same auction, an Andy Warhol painting and a Renoir sculpture went unsold.

A painting by Congo

While Congo was a zoological curiosity those days, later many animals, especially elephants, were trained to paint. Recently, a video from Maetong Elephant Camp, at Chiang Mai Taiwan, showed an elephant named Nong Thanwa doing painting, and one picture portraying herself and a friend was sold for over $5500. However, this also invited the wrath of animal rights activists, as they considered this as torture, because the elephant was not doing it voluntarily.

A elephant doing a painting in an elephant camp in Thailand

Further, there are debates as to whether such works where pigments are transferred to canvas can be termed real art, and some people believe that equating a creation by chimpanzee to abstract expressionism is an expression of contempt towards the art movement. Still one thing is clear – humans are not the only ones who derive pleasure from such creative engagements.