The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo plans to open a temporary gallery shop downtown to sell art created by zoo residents.

Yes, that means paintings by elephants, baboons, penguins, tigers, ponies and other artists will be on sale at the Zoo to You Gallery at 214 ½ N. Tejon St. (across from Acacia Park, next to CJ Kard).

“The penguins’ work tends to be a little more abstract,” said zoo spokeswoman Katie Borremans. “They just walk through the paint and then onto the paper. It’s arguable about whether that’s really art. … The orangutans tend to look much more human in the way they hold the brush.”

Then, of course, there’s the zoo’s most famous artist: Lucky the African elephant. You must go online to ColoradoSprings.com and see Lucky painting, her trunk wrapped around the brush, to believe it.

The gallery is temporary. It will only be open for three days: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Dec. 3, noon-5 p.m. Dec. 4 and 4-8 p.m. Dec. 7.

Proceeds will go toward the zoo animals and conservation programs. Sales from previous animal art sales have raised more than $18,000.

The Zoomobile also will be on hand outside the gallery sometimes, so kids can meet a few of the more mobile zoo critters.

“We’ll have a few animals they can meet, like Lilly our skunk and prairie dogs,” Borremans said. “Unfortunately the elephants won’t be there to talk about their work.”

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