Designing a mural for The Ranomafana Nature Center

By Safina Center Fellow Alain Rasolo

©Alain Rasolo

The Ranomafana Nature Center is a place for local kids to learn about the environment and especially about Ranomafana National Park’s rich biodiversity. It was created by Erik Callender, one of my fellows at The Safina Center. After being approached by one the staff, I volunteered to make the preliminary design of a 9.5-meter-wide and 3-meter-tall mural that depicts the rainforest and some of the wildlife that call it home. The design will be the basis for the actual mural, which a fellow oil painter from Antananarivo, the capital, will paint at the beginning of November.

I divided the mural into four different scenes. The first one is about two local kids who came to explore the rainforest and are observing the surrounding wildlife, the trees and the ferns. The second one is again of the forest, but with a view of the canopy with some birds in the sky, a comet flying by, and a sunset moth. The third shows the traditional stone memorial that was raised in the heart of the park, surrounded by bamboos with some bamboo-eating lemurs on them. And the last scene is of a well-known small waterfall with some nearby Pandanus, a bird nest fern, tree fern, Sifaka, tree boa, painted frog, kingfisher, chameleon, etc... 

©Alain Rasolo

©Alain Rasolo

I am excited to see how this mural will turn out. It will be a great addition to the Nature Center, and a way to bring the forest to the kids, in their place of learning.