Rhapsodies

Just saw this on the Woodland Park Zoo’s Instagram Feed.

We have some sad news to share with our zoo family. Our beloved Pete passed away last night at 50 years old. The western lowland gorilla was one of the oldest gorillas in North America and lived a long, enriched life thanks to his team of dedicated keepers who were with him until the very end. The big guy was known as “the gentlemen of gorillas” by his animal caretakers, and many of you grew up watching Pete and Nina (who passed away three years ago) reign as grandmother and grandfather of our gorilla

Pete was my favorite model at the zoo. I hadn’t gotten a lot of good drawings of him this year because his favorite spot was right behind some shrubbery so the only thing I could draw was the same profile over and over.

Not to say it wasn’t a good profile.

So here’s the last sketch I ever did of him in September.

Rest in peace, big guy.