Gatorland, Florida
A fun day sketching and shooting photos at Gatorland with good friends
Hi everyone, just a quick note from DeLand, Florida where my friend Benji and I have been hanging out with our gracious hosts Ronnie and Paula Williford. Yesterday Benji, Ronnie, and I spent the day sketching gators (see more photos at Ronnie’s Facebook post) but mostly we walked around and took photos of beautiful creatures in Gatorland.
(Keep an eye out for Ronnie’s Substack, by the way, which should be appearing in the near future if all goes to plan.)
When you first enter Gatorland, be sure to stop by the gigantic pair of jaws to have your picture taken. Here we see Benji with Ronnie being swallowed whole, but they seem OK with it.
Ronnie, who is a veteran artist in a variety of media including oils, printmaking, and animation, says that for beginning artists sketching animals from life, alligators are a great subject—because they hardly ever move. And he was right! I just happened to pick two gators that were a bit jittery.
Wild birds like the snowy egret shown below fly in and out of the park to compete with the gators for treats.
I enjoyed seeing the baby gator nursery area, which included a little waterfall and pool. These gators could sit in the palm of your hand.
Zoom in and look at the incredible detail on the skin of this iguana.
Many gators at Gatorland arrived here after being removed from neighborhoods populated mostly by humans, thereby avoiding euthanization. According to Ronnie, alligators only grow when they are fed (not as they get older), and there is no upper size limit. Some grow rather large!
Other gators like “Jawlene” were born with physical anomalies that require special care. Jawlene was too shy for photos that day (or too warm), so I photographed her dazzling welcome sign instead.
My favorite animal at Gatorland is Holly, a salmon-crested cockatoo that softly whistles and says “hello!” I last saw her in 2022 and looked forward to meeting with her again. I was sad to have to walk away from her!
There are several kinds of pink flamingo at Gatorland, including varieties from South America and others from Africa.
Benji and I stopped by the budgie aviary where signs caution visitors to slide their feet rather than lift, to avoid budgie squishing accidents. You can buy a millet-covered peanut butter stick for a few dollars, and budgies will fly down to perch on your finger and have a snack.
Anyway, friends, that’s what’s going on in Florida! I’ll send more updates soon About a visit to Ronnie’s studio, and seeing Aaron Blaise’s solo-animated short Snow Bear at the Enzian Theater with Ronnie, Paula, and Benji.
(Photos by me unless noted otherwise).
I love those sketches! Yes, gators make fine subjects — they’re inherently interesting as well as not moving around much. The only subject I ever sketched on location is Haddonfield’s Hadrosaurus statue. Obviously, it shares the same characteristics. Back to these sketches— the detail of the pebbled alligator skin is quite impressive. And it appears that a good time was had by all.
I really like the egret sketch. Despite my deep fear of waterfowl and water-adjacent-fowl.
We have crocodile and alligator in southwest PA, too. Not natively, but they keep popping up along the Kiski.