The lions, the tigers, the bears.... oh my...

Wildlife is why I enjoy art.  It really makes you appreciate the world around you more when you start to look at nature from the standpoint of an artist.  You notice every shade of the sunset, the color of each speck of sand on the beach, the symmetry in plants and seashells, the lay of the fur or feathers on an animal's back.  When you try to reproduce that on paper, you do your best to capture the emotion behind the eyes and the vivid colors of each scene.  Of course, I always fall miserably short of the real thing, but usually the minimal detail and likeness I am able to capture is enough to get the point across, and hopefully it's enough to make the viewer stop and appreciate these little details and perfections the next time he is out in the world.

I found this lynx when cleaning out my art cabinet recently.  I had forgotten all about it.  It was actually one scene in a set of three, all on one piece of scratchboard.  The other two scenes were of the lynx climbing down some rocks and chasing a rabbit.  I always thought the other two scenes took away from this view, so I cropped them off when displaying it here.  The original is about 18"x18", and as of now I have no prints made.  I am always looking for excuses to make prints, so contact me if you are interested.

Eyes See You

Originally, I did this scene, or one very similar to it, as a fairly large linoleum/rubber stamp print.  The stamp was about 16"x20", and I used carving and etching tools to cut out the scene.  Being a stamp, it of course turned out similar to what the negative of the picture to the right would be.  I saw this scene in the Atlanta zoo, and I really liked how the light came through the open-rafter shade and fell on the rocks.  In re-doing the picture, I used a pen-and-ink medium, adding patterns to the rocks and a little more control over the technique.  The detail in the picture to the right is much better than the stamp-print, but it looses something in moving from an all-black background to all-white.  Click on the picture to the right to get a better view of this piece.  The original is 11"x14", and signed prints are available.

Playtime  - 11"x14"

This great horned owl was brought into the veterinary clinic where I worked during high school with an injured wing.  The clinic had a large aviary cage for just that reason, all grown up with weeds and brambles to give the birds a little cover, and this guy stayed with us for a short while until he was healed.  While he was there though, he followed every move we made when we came outside with the dogs.  Those bright yellow eyes would stare right through you.  Even though they are really only neutral colored, the feather patterns were awesome.  I snapped a whole roll of film of him, knowing I would want to do something with them as a drawing soon.  I got hold of a piece of clayboard, which really worked out perfect for all the neutral tones and tiny lines.  Clayboard is what it sounds like - a piece of wood or slate with a layer of dense clay coating.  You can do anything to it - paint on it, watercolor it, draw on it, etch into it, or a combination.  Here, I went over the board with an ink wash for the splotchy, unfocused background brambles, followed by brush & ink to give it shape and pattern, and finally scratched through with blades to pull out the lighter lines. Sorry, no prints are available

Great Horned Owl -  16"x20"  - 1994

Acrylic painting of a Siberian tiger, 1996.  For a while, it seemed like tigers was about all I painted/drew.  I really like tigers, but I wasn't trying to be exclusive about it.  Lately, as you can see, I've branched out a bit.  Sorry, no prints available for this one.

Siberian Tiger, 1996.  24"x18"

A Bengal Tiger from a while back.  I wish I could say that these two were done from my own little adventures, but I haven't made it to those parts of the world yet.

For wildlife of Coastal Georgia, please click here

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