This painting has been rattling around in my noggin for some time. I think I first had the idea at the Calgary Zoo when I saw Skoki, the grizzly bear, sitting in one of his ponds, playing with something floating on the water.
I had taken photos at the time, hoping for some good reference, but while they didn’t give me what I needed, the idea stuck. I have more reference photos of brown bears than anything else, thanks to the time I’ve spent at Discovery Wildlife Park and I used several bears for reference for this painting.
That made it more challenging with different angles and lighting, as did painting wet fur rather than dry and fuzzy. I’ll admit that I didn’t think I could pull it off for much of this painting. It didn’t look half decent to me until several hours in, but that often happens when I paint these critters.
As the man said (often falsely attributed to Churchill), “When you’re going through hell, keep going.”
Eventually, it comes together, the personality shows up, and it turns into an enjoyable pursuit rather than a frustrating one. What was at first a slog, seeming like hours of no progress, ended up to be work I didn’t want to stop.
I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of painting grizzly bears.
Cheers,
Patrick
