My inspiration for this painting came from a turtle that we had in our aquarium for a brief period. The turtle that we had came as a gift and though we weren’t entirely certain about the legality aspect of owning one, we tried our best to create a habitat within our aquarium that was conducive to both species in aquarium. Our post-facto research did reveal the fallacies that we harboured in relation to keeping a turtle as a pet; couple of them being their requirement of enormous amounts of water and a tendency to carry salmonella. 

The lifespan of a turtle is known to be large although it depends on a multitude of things, as we realised later. Sea turtles and giant tortoises tend to live in the range of 70-120 years, give or take a few. But smaller turtles can have a fairly long lifespan too depending on habitat, temperature, food etc. 

These are fascinating creatures who live partly on land and partly in water. Very often they need a dry dock to rest their flippers and lay their eggs in sand, the temperature of which is also a crucial element in their doing so. Turtles are not social creatures and prefer isolation. Turtles have webbed feet that help them to swim. They carry a hard shell on their back, in which they retract their head and body, the moment they sense danger. Turtles have poor hearing but excellent smell, sight and sense of direction.