I chose Boschbrand (Forest Fire), painted in 1849 by Raden Saleh. He created many detailed and realistic paintings, but this one stood out to me because I love animals and want to become a vet. The painting’s bright colours immediately draw attention, making the scene even more intense. It is Saleh’s largest work and powerfully captures the chaos of wild animals fleeing a massive fire. The wind blows fiercely, bending trees in the background, while tigers and buffalo crash into each other in their desperate escape.​
This painting reminded me of the Scottish Wildcat, also known as the Highland Tiger. These animals are skilled hunters with incredible senses and stealth. Unfortunately, their population has drastically declined over the years. This inspired me to create my own artwork, showing the rapid decrease in their numbers. One of my paintings represents the 20th century, when there were around 12,000 wildcats in the wild. The other shows the 21st century, where only 35 remain due to disease and other threats. This is important to me due to my Scottish heritage.​
I also used colours to symbolize this change. The bright green painting represents the wildcat’s habitat before destruction, full of life and greenery. In contrast, the deep burgundy painting represents the aftermath, showing a damaged, struggling environment. To visually display the numbers, I included dots—on the green painting, each of the 12 dots represents 1,000 wildcats. In the later painting, I used black dots, each representing five wildcats, and white dots, each representing seven. By showing the numbers in multiple ways, I wanted to make the population decline clear and easy to understand.​
Saleh’s painting made me think about how quickly animals can disappear, just like the Scottish Wildcat. It also made me reflect on the destruction of wildfires and how they threaten not just forests but the animals that live there. Through my own artwork, I wanted to show the decline of many species and highlight the dangers they face. I hope my paintings help people realize how serious this issue is and encourage them to take action to protect wildlife.