Brrrrr!

 After finishing the large elk painting I wanted another large painting with a North American subject for my upcoming show in Nashville, Tennessee, the Safari Club International Convention in January.

 

I've spent quite a bit of time on the ground with polar bears in the wild so that was a logical choice.

For this piece I wanted a more intimate setting for the bear, less of an expansive landscape like some of my other polar bear paintings.

 

Here's the start. Grab your coat. It's going to get cold.

 

 Like usual I am starting with the background. 

First I painted the ocean "peep holes" at the very top. 

As you can see my next step are the ice shadows. I like to work on the shadows first. If the shadows read well, then I add the "white" highlights. 

 

 

 

Finished

On the Ice

8.5" X 12.5"

Original Oil

Completed

White Hunter

20" X 38"

Original Oil

For this painting the title came before I even picked up a brush. The hunter is after white geese (Snow and Ross) but the title is also fitting for the large white hunter entering from the right.

The North Country

Just returned from the north country. For me that means northern Manitoba, north of Churchill on Hudson Bay.

This is my fifth trip to this part of the world and I do not tire of the scenery. At the edge of the Boreal Forest, the tundra abutting Hudson Bay is spectacular, especially in the fall. The colors simply brilliant. It is fascinating watching the fourteen-foot tidal change of Hudson Bay affect the landscape hourly. And there are the animals. This trip I was able to watch peregrine falcons hunting. It is the closest I have been to this bird and they are certainly dramatic aerialists. Northern Harriers and bald eagles added to the list of predatory birds.

Of course September signals goose migration. Snow and Ross geese fill the sky. Some move in large flocks, others in family groups. I was there a little later this year and noticed an abundance of "blue" geese, the dark phase of snow geese. This is a particularly beautiful color variation. We have noticed that many snow and Ross geese will spend time around the fresh water ponds near the Bay and sometime during the day head inland for berry picking. The tundra is filled with wild berries: blueberries, cranberries, cloudberries, crowberries, and black currants.

The star of the show in this country is the polar bear. Framed by the fall colors of the tundra, they are striking. I had the chance to see two bears up close from the ground.

Expect to see paintings from this amazing trip.