Ain't Lion

here's a photo of a painting (and a closeup of the painting) I did for my nephew - back when he had his first birthday last September (he's almost 2 now!). You may be asking: nice painting, but why in the world did you paint a painting for your nephew's first birthday - not your typical gift. You're right. The backstory goes something like this...
In 2005 I had the chance to go to Kenya with my brother and his wife, her parents (medical missionaries) and about 15 other people I hadn't met before. Most were nurses or missionaries, etc, and then there was me, this random guy with a camera and a keen interest in helping people. I don't have time to tell the whole story, but I got to go on safari and around sunset we happened to crawl up on this young male lion resting in the middle of a savanna. I clicked several sweaty-fingered pictures on my Nikon FM-10, capturing some decent slides.
FF to September of 2006, when this little miracle boy known as Christopher Didyk comes bursting out of the womb in Lexington, KY.
This story is getting too long.
Ok, my sister-in-law, then--my brother's wife Rachel (Christopher's mom) wanted me to do a mural of an African scene for the baby's room. And, well, in the middle of a kajillion other projects I just didn't get it done on time, and Christopher was early--like scary early. Also, once this little kid was healthy the parents decide to up and move to Johnson City! Hey it was a good move, and means they're all a lot closer for me to visit, but then I didn't know how big of a wall I would be dealing with/what size canvas I needed to prepare, etc. So by the time his first birthday rolled around, I spent an evening, about four hours, creating this acrylic painting from my photograph. I really liked the process of doing a painting of my own slide--would be fun to do more of these--and I think it will be a cool thing for Christopher to dig up when he's a little older.