My solo wildlife show on Martha's Vineyard at the Louisa Gould Gallery has a write up in the Martha's Vineyard Times. See link below.
Wild Things on Exhibit at the Louisa Gould Gallery
My solo wildlife show on Martha's Vineyard at the Louisa Gould Gallery has a write up in the Martha's Vineyard Times. See link below.
Wild Things on Exhibit at the Louisa Gould Gallery
People, well sort of.
What is the significance of 900?
What do these places have in common? My work will be in a show there.
Oil Painters of America 31st Annual National Exhibition of Traditional Oils Steamboat Art Museum, Steamboat Springs, Colorado June 3 - August 27
In the show is Stealth - Amur Tiger Original oil painting by Linda Besse 24" X 34"
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Society of Animal Artists Presenting the Animals of North America Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, Clarksville, Tennessee May 3 - June 26, 2022
In the show is Sandhill Spring Migration Original oil painting by Linda Besse 16" X 24"-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Guild of Realism 16th Annual Exhibition McBride Gallery, Annapolis, Maryland June 10 - July 24
In the show is Spooked Original oil by Linda Besse 24" X 36"
The first spring flowers are just starting to bloom but it is still dipping below freezing at night here. While waiting for the full onset on Spring, I thought I would share my very wintry painting from earlier this year.
The aurora borealis has different looks with the types listed as dunes, arcs, bands, pillars, diffuse, and corona. I don't know which type my favorite falls in to but I call it curtains. The undulating spectacle reminds me of the heavy curtains on a stage moving gently as the players behind take their places before the show starts.When I can create a painting which also includes a predator with which I have spent a lot of time with in the wild, I have a recipe for a dramatic painting.
Starting with the sky, I block in the colors painting some very bright yellow as a focus point for the northern lights.
In keeping with the night scene, the ice has a dull teal hue with pockets of purer color in the foreground.
The water has some muted shadows and I painted it so it would feel fairly smooth with no hint of a breeze.
I have been fortunate to have spent time in remote Manitoba observing polar bears. There are few things more heart pounding that to be in the tundra and finding a polar bear has been watching you and you didn't know he was there.
The above image of the scanned painting looks quite a bit different than the in-progress photos. Once the piece was dry, I glazed many sections with mostly Michael Harding Phthalocyanine Blue Lake.
Warrior King Original Oil 24" X 16"
Here is a scan of the completed painting. Once varnished, the dark texture will no longer have the "ghost" of reflected light.
I've decided to go with a gloss varnish. This is a change for me as I like a semi-gloss or a satin. It seemed the traditional nature of the dramatic lighting called for gloss.
I asked my framer to paint the frame to match my mottled background and touch the inside lip of the frame with a hint of the golden color of the mane. The frame started as a matte black. She is amazing. Holly Swanson, owner of Spokane Gallery & Framing.
Below is a quick photo of the finished frame. We went with a more satin look for the frame so not to distract from the painting.
Thank you for joining me as I explored the use of chiaroscuro.
At this stage the structures of his head have been painted but none of the lighter sections nor the colors of his mane in the sunlight.
Note: Quick photo with my phone
The first thing I did after painting the mottled background was paint his eyes. A painting can fall flat if the eyes don't grab one's attention. Though they were painted at the beginning, that does not mean I am done with them. Throughout the painting I am making changes to get just the right feeling from them. Below is a photo of them at this stage of the painting.
Now that the other ear is painted, the painting feels less lopsided to me. I wanted to work on the shadowed side first and use the information I gathered from that side to "inform" how I wanted to approach the lit side.
Note: these are quick photos from my phone
Chiaroscuro has fascinated me. The use of extreme light and dark, perfected by Rembrandt, has been a tool of artists for centuries. For this lion, which obviously had been the victor in numerous battles, I thought this technique would reflect the honor he had won.
I began with a mottled background of dark browns and burnt sienna. This dark background will help emphasize the light parts of the lion's mane.
Next I started on his mane. I went kind of wild with the red but I thought it would add to the drama.
I am not concerned with portraying the individual hairs of his fur but am using broad strokes in the direction of his fur. This shadowed section will have the least amount of detail.
Note: These are quick photos with my phone.
My painting Ice Bear has been awarded 3rd place in the Challenges of Climate Change presented by Science Art-Nature. The awards were announced December 2021.
While art is an important focus of the Challenges of Climate Change, so is the science. To see more about Ice Bear in this context, click here.
For more about the non-profit Science Art - Nature, click here.
From the Science Art - Nature website:
Works of Science Art skillfully represent truths about the world and its creatures, often suggesting important connections among subjects and their surroundings and teaching us indirectly about nature itself.
To qualify as Science Art and to work well, the rendering is accompanied by an explanatory caption that helps the viewer decode the underlying science.
We have been asked: “Why Science Art?” The term neither describes the science of artistic creation nor the depiction of scientific events.
Instead, we see in Science Art a kind of cultural fusion in which painting or sculpture or photography say something about the natural world and how it works. Whether or not it is motivated by a scientific purpose, a work of Science Art can enrich the viewer with a sense that its subject is connected with, and could help explain, relationships.
The artist sometimes uses scientific knowledge and findings; sometimes these emerge only because the artist’s execution is sensitive and faithful to these relationships.
We have also been asked: “Why not ‘Environmental Art’ or ‘Wildlife Art’ or ‘Nature Art’?” Works of art that represent truths about the natural world and its creatures certainly include these categories, although not all examples of Environmental Art, Wildlife Art, and Nature Art convey truths. Here, too, it is the explanatory caption that provides the viewer with access to truths that might otherwise be overlooked.