It took a bit of time to get back there, but it was worth it for Trish Croal to make the return trip to the Chipangali Wildlife Rescue Center in Zimbabwe.
The artist, currently living in Keremeos, returned from her trip to Africa in December, where she spent 30 days painting as many murals.
"I painted the entrance sign, the different sections for the animals. I pretty well painted on every wall that was blank," Croal said. "I did one, sometimes two a day depending on how big they were. I started at 6 [a.m.] in the morning and got done by 4 [p.m.], so it was pretty productive."
Croal had started doing some paintings for the animal sanctuary near the end of her first trip to volunteer there in 2012, and they waited patiently for her to make a second trip back at the end of 2024.
A world traveller, Croal has volunteered at wildlife sanctuaries on multiple continents, including in Thailand, Costa Rica and Africa. Her love for animals extends beyond her volunteering and into her career.
"The basis of my artwork started on wildlife," Croal said. "I was raised on the Alaska Highway, so there wasn't much to do other than climb mountains and draw, so that's what I did. I taught myself how to draw and use all the animals as reference up there."
Chipangali is the only sanctuary to have Croal's murals, and she said it was the closest thing to a gallery of her work.
Croal's personal favourite out of all the murals she did?
"I would say the leopard. I do kind of whimsical paintings, and I liked the leopard one," Croal said. "That was my favourite."
Croal also has some of her art in some Keremeos businesses, and she is heading out to Kamloops in the summer to do the full inside and outside of a restaurant.
Although she doesn't travel as much of the year as she used to, Croal still finds time to paint and draw everywhere she goes.
"I just got back from Maui two days ago and I did a mural for the place t I was staying at," she said. "I just kind of have to paint all the time. It's like brushing your teeth, you know. You get up and do a mural."
