I’ve long been fascinating by lizards, and Chuckwallas are among my favorites. I remember reading about them as a child, especially their habit of fleeing from predators into a rock crevice and inflating their bellies to wedge themselves in; a lizard inflating itself like a ball (which is how I envisioned it, however inaccurately, at the time) lit up every corner of my young imagination. Decades later, I moved to the Sonoran Desert and was delighted to discover that we have wild Chuckwallas right here! I have yet to observe one in the wild, but it remains a goal.

The animal in this painting is the San Esteban Chuckwalla, the largest, most colorful, and rarest of the five species. They are extremely geographically limited to the tiny island of San Esteban in the Gulph of Mexico (unlike the species we have here in Arizona which is fairly widespread across the Southwest). They are listed as an endangered species due to hunting by local people and the introduction of foreign predators, such as rats and mice- which eat their eggs- and feral dogs and cats- which prey on the lizards themselves. As such, the San Esteban Chuckwalla is the subject of an AZA approved Species Survival Program, which focuses on maintaining a healthy, genetically diverse, captive population in the event that the wild population should suffer a catastrophic loss.

Fortunately for me, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, right here in Tucson, is one such breeding facility. The curator of Herpetology, Thomas Weaver, was kind enough to spend a morning with me and several captive San Esteban Chuckwallas to help me study them in person and take photographic reference for my work. This painting is the result. I absolutely love the color palette of peaches, pinks, greys, and black, but what impressed me most about these lizards is how relaxed they are. Though they certainly have the ability to move very fast, Chuckwallas in captivity have a reputation for being rather “chill.” Several times during our photoshoot, one of the lizards assumed a less than graceful position, and Thomas literally moved a leg or tail, posing them like dolls. They were so complaint and helpful, I have to count them among the easiest animal models I have ever worked with.