Description
Brown Trout: Salmo trutta
Natives of Europe and West Asia, Brown Trout were introduced in North America around 1883. They now range throughout southern Canada southwest to California and northeast throughout the Great Lakes south to Mississippi. They have been able to do well in the Pacific Northwest and are able to tolerate higher water temperatures than other salmon and trout species.
This painting is a celebration of autumn. The colours of Brown trout are the colours of fall and inside are a plethora of insects, flora and fauna that are in the woods around me. The red spots are Ladybugs, in the fins and bodies you’ll find butterflies such as Lustrous Copper,Monarch, Milbert’s Tortoiseshell, California Tortoiseshell, The Viceroy (also known as the mimic monarch), Admiral and Clouded Sulphur. A Garden Tiger Moth has alit in the head of the left trout while further down in the body is the Wooly caterpillar it used to be. In the right hand trout a Polythemus Moth flutters in the lower body and a Gypsy Moth Caterpillar (another European import yet this one with devastating effects) crawls up at the top. Amongst the fallen maple, salmonberry and alder leaves, the spent fern fronds and rose hips, the cones and fungi, are a Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) in the left and a little Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris) in the right. I’m sure by looking you can find a few more of nature’s treasures.
