Wild Portraits of My Heart
     What I love most about painting animals is the feeling that comes over me when I start to “see their heart”. I spend many hours staring at photographs working to get the detail and emotion of each animal onto the canvas. Perhaps this is when their soul starts to shine through.
     Painting Bears is one of my strongest passions. Their poses and expressions make them an alluring subject matter. Did you know that the Alaskan Brown Bear is part of the Grizzly Bear family? There are so many different animals living in the Kootenays. I am enjoying exploring the beauty of each one.
     Painting wild animals led me to discover that the Lynx has unusually big paws which allows him to walk quietly and easily above packed snow when he is hunting his dinner of rabbit. A baby cougar is called a cub and/or a kitten. Cougars have super long tails!
     My work is produced using acrylics on gallery wrapped canvas. The unframed look and feel of the thick canvas seem just right with these wild portraits. As I hike in the Kootenay forests I dream and imagine incorporating the habitat of these forest creatures into paintings.