Saturday 31 December 2016

Lurch - A Very Fine Bear...

 I completed this yesterday - it's a portrait of a bear known as 'Lurch' who lived at Brooks Falls,  Katmai National Park in Alaska.  He was a big and powerful old bear, took no nonsense, and I used to like seeing him on the live cams.  However, this July he stopped appearing and a decomposed body was found nearby that was pretty much identified as him by the teeth - it was quite sad, but part of the circle of life.  I didn't plan on painting him, I just happened to see this great photo someone had taken that I wanted to paint from, and the fact that it was Lurch was just lucky.

This has been painted in acrylics on canvas board, and was kind of a follow on from the wolf I painted earlier this month, both close up portraits with no background on square canvases.
 I'd like to do more in this style, just considering which animal to focus on next.
This watercolour portrait has been kept under wraps for over a month as it was a Christmas present for my nephew's wife in the USA.  Hopefully they have opened it by now - I've not heard anything...

2 comments:

BumbleVee said...

I love the look of old Lurch.... a lovely face....

Caroline B said...

It was sad when we learned of his demise - he was quite a character.