An Artist's Journey in Words and Pictures

AWE AND WONDER

Oil painting on stretched canvas, 11 x 14. There is something about a little fawn that always melts my heart. The beautiful rusts and golds of its coat and those expressive brown eyes make this little one the perfect subject for a portrait. I love the look of awe and wonder in its eyes. This shy, delicate beauty required a soft  neutral background that is airy with a just a hint of movement.

Speaking of backgrounds…

For many artists (this one included) one of the most difficult aspects of wildlife portrait painting  is creating the right background.  The background can  make or break a portrait. You have to consider light and darkness, color temperature and harmony, as well as weight and movement. Everything is meant to enhance the feeling of the piece without distracting from its subject. 

Over the years I have developed three hard and fast rules about painting the background for portraits.  I  always carefully follow each one of these rules -  except when I don’t! The first rule is to keep it simple. If you focus too much time and energy on it, the background will eventually dominate the work. A painting can actually fight itself. Not good. The second rule is to lay in the paint quite thinly at first, because even if you think you know how it will look, you really don’t. Make it as easy as you can to change your mind, because you will change it often and it will never be easy. The third rule is there are really no hard and fast rules so feel free to ignore anything anyone tells you. All that really matters is that you do whatever whatever it takes to make it work. And that is why I dread painting backgrounds.

Thank you for stopping by. I pray your day is filled with love and God’s blessings.

"Watchful and Wary Wolf” is an oil painting on 12 by12 inch canvas. To me he looks more like  a vulnerable wild animal than a fierce predator.  Of course, that might depend on who was looking at him and how long it had been since he had eaten. Anyway I love capturing the light of life in the eyes of an animal, wild or tame, as it reminds me of the Master Artist who created us all.

For many years I have thought of myself as a pastel artist who dabbled in other mediums, but I have been working more in oils lately for health reasons.  Thoroughly immersing myself in oil painting has taken me longer than expected. It is as much a change in mindset as a change of materials and methods - visualizing with a brush instead of sticks and pencils, mixing colors of paint on a palette instead of searching for just the right color stick, and - the biggest leap of all - allowing for drying time. Even with all that, I am loving the adventure and feel a whole new world opening before me.  Slowly… But then “slowly” could turn out to be the best part of the process.  I am learning to  really enjoy the slower pace. When a painting begins with the understanding that it will take a fair amount of time to complete, there is no longer the stress of getting it done “now.”  Much more enjoyable! 

Thanks for reading. I hope that 2024 is a year of blessings and joy for you all. 

Special thanks to Julie Lebel for sharing her wonderful photograph which inspired this painting.