Artwork / Crime Against Nature / Papa’s Milk (Emperor Penguin)

painting of an emperor penguin
Gwenn Seemel
Papa’s Milk (Emperor Penguin)
2012
acrylic on panel
10 x 10 inches

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The lessons learned creating the background of this image were put to good use in this sunset painting five years later. Below is the text from the book Crime Against Nature that goes with this image.

Boys can be just as committed to childcare as girls.

Emperor penguin parents work together to raise their young. Directly after laying her egg, the female takes off to feed in the ocean for two months, leaving the male to incubate the egg. The chick’s first meal comes from its father in the form of crop milk. Prolactin, the hormone that causes lactation in mammals, is responsible for the production of crop milk as well.

wildlife painting by Gwenn Seemel
detail image