Description
Freshwater Turtle (real turtle shell)
This particular sculpture of a local species of freshwater turtle employs a real turtle shell (as well as carved and painted balsa wood for the extremities). The waters around the Solentiname islands and the rivers that flow into Lake Nicaragua are teeming with these reptiles and many other species of endemic fauna.
Solentiname arts have become rather well known internationally among folk art collectors and academicians. These oil painters and folk sculpture carvers have created their own ‘school’ of expression – the distinct Nicaraguan Solentiname style.
The Solentiname islanders of Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) are primarily fishing and farming people. Almost all of them are also artists going back several generations! Among these island residents, the talent and urge to express themsleves artistically convinced a local priest (who has been living and serving among them for years and who is ex-Minister of Culture), Ernesto Cardinal, to guide artists in their technique and promote their talents beyond this lake .
- Size: 18 1/2″ (47 cm ) long
