Work in progress

Traveling through Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada a few years ago, my wife Barbara and I stopped to walk down to a waterfall.  From the bright, sunny river above, we descended into a mysterious, misty chasm.  I wanted to produce a painting of this scene as an entry for the Society of Animal Artists Annual Show in 2023.  To be part of an SAA show, of course, there had to be an animal in the painting - the question was, what animal?  The only logical choice that would fit with the locale and heighten the atmosphere of mystery was a grizzly bear.  Using reference photos of a grizzly we saw on this trip, up close while driving through Alberta, I posed my subject within the scene, not up close where it would dominate the composition.  I painted from background to foreground, with the exception of the bear which I painted early on to help ensure compatible values between the subject and its environment.  One might quibble with the concept, i.e., "Why is that bear tiptoeing along a waterfall?"  The answer is because I, the artist, chose to depict her there and, while in our imagination she may have had a reason to venture out into this chasm, only she knows the reason.