Header image by Congo the Chimpanzee via The Mayor Gallery
Today marks World Art Day - a day to celebrate art in all it's wonderful, unique forms! We wanted to take the chance to highlight some of our favourite animal artists who make beautiful art by hand - or should we say paw, hoof & claw.
Bini the bunny
Bini the Bunny is a 8 year old Holland Lop Rabbit who has captured the hearts of millions of fans by sharing his love for art on his social media channels. Bini has created over 300 masterpieces, which have been shipped to fans all over the world. To create his art works, he holds a paintbrush in his mouth and uses rabbit-safe paints to create each of his unique paintings. According to his owner, he takes anywhere between 40-90 minutes to complete each work of art. You can buy Bini's paintings online here. You can follow Bini on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube to watch his creative process unfold!
Grizzler the dog photographer
In 2015, Nikon Asia selected Grizzler the dog to become a dog photographer using one of their cameras that was strapped to his body and rigged to take a photo whenever Grizzler's heartbeat increased. From looking at his photos, Grizzler seems to be a fan of nature, food and other animals. Amanda Kooser says "Grizzler does have a special touch with animal portraits. His work really captures the angst of a cat faced with a primal enemy and the curiosity of other dogs when meeting another of their kind. These are images human photographers can't easily capture." You can see Grizzler in action in this YouTube video.
Juniper the fox
Juniper, also known as The Happiest Fox, and her family are North American red foxes living out their life in a home full of rescued exotics. They were each born in captivity and are descended from fur-farm foxes. Because of their genetic differences from their wild counterparts they can not be released into the wild. Jessika Coker, Juniper's owner and rescuer runs their popular Instagram account and helps the foxes to create some beautiful art! Each paw print painting is original and is created by Juniper walking across a canvas, creating colourful, abstract works with her paw prints. You can purchase Juniper's paintings here.
The Bowerbird
One of the most artistic bird species has to be the bowerbird. As part of their mating display, the male birds build a display made out of a collection of objects they have found. These can be all kinds of strange objects, from ribbons and pieces of glass to coins and photographs. The males carefully pick out and arrange all of these objects around a construction of interwoven sticks and grasses. Interestingly, this is entirely separate from building a nest. The display that the male bowerbird creates is purely for aesthetic purposes. Because of this, each birds display is totally unique, and they all have different styles. Pictured above is a bird that has made his display using only blue objects, a fascinating stylistic choice.