Paintings With Soul

check her out, make her yours Thistle, 16x16, acrylic on cradled panel (no need to frame, painting will arrive wired and ready to hang), $1450, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. This painting is an empath watching a loved one ache, knowing the best they can do is listen, sit with and love them through it. I think we’ve all been there at some point or other…. In lighter news, my online pet portrait workshop opened yesterday - students from all over the world are eagerly introducing themselves and setting intentions for the course. This evening is our zoom launch party (the 23rd) at 7pm eastern. I’ve opened this session up to students and the public - I’ll show over 100 of my portraits, talk about concepts and compositions, share some tips culled from the last 25 years of commission work, and get us situated to push some paint. You don’t have to be enrolled in the cla...

check her out, make her yours Phosphorescent, 20x20, acrylic on cradled panel (no need to frame, painting will arrive wired and ready to hang), $1900, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. Originally Phosphorescent had a dahlia over each eye. It was interesting and oh so beautiful, but distracting. The flowers overpowered her face and she became secondary in the painting. It was not what she wanted at all - she pushed herself back to the surface of the painting, and in the process that second bloom dissolved. I think this approach is still intriguing, but would be better suited to a full body Bear, with a stronger ratio of Bear to Flower. Like I said, I learn new ways to approach this concept with each painting. I have another one in process now where Bear’s mask is veil like, drifting across her face with the lightness of cottonwood. There’s something interesting that...

Profusion check her out, make her yours Profusion, 20x20, acrylic on cradled panel (no need to frame, painting will arrive wired and ready to hang), $1900, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. This was a challenging painting week - as the complexity of these masked bears grows, so too does the difficulty level. I am literally learning on my feet as the pieces progress. Which frankly is one of my favorite ways to learn - by doing! Profusion hit a point where I thought she had further to go, but my critique group (yesterday) declared her finished. I weighed the possibility of stopping,** but ultimately it felt like I was copping out. So this morning I deepened her value relationships, added a passage of smaller marks, pulled one of the flowers forward and allowed the barely suggested eye to disappear. I am so pleased to have taken these risks - the painting is all the...

check her out, bring her home Room to Grow (Sun Bear), 18x24, acrylic on cradeled panel (no need to frame, painting will arrive wired and ready to hang), $1900, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. Originally Sun Bear was stacked with Butterfly and Moth. I loved the idea, but the execution felt predictable. I value unexpected elements in art, and wasn’t seeing any of them in her early beginnings but for one little exciting butterfly passage, which frankly wasn’t enough to support the entirety of the surface. So she sat in the studio and watched me paint a number of Bears, complete with Masks of Butterflies and Florals, while waiting for the concept to evolve inspiration to hit. And a couple days ago she asked for her own mask, one threaded with roses. “Yellow, please,” she said, “to match my collar.” Meanwhile, Sun Bear introduced me to Moon Bear. I have a Spirit Be...

check her out, bring her home Summer Solstice, 20x20, acrylic on cradeled panel (no need to frame, painting will arrive wired and ready to hang), $1900, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. This painting got her start last week at my friend’s house . She (my friend, not Solstice) invited a group of us to gather and paint in her garden ( her roses killed me) . It was a glorious day. Then she (Solstice, not my friend) came home to the studio for more work, informed by photos I took that first day along with bits and pieces from my own garden. I toyed with the concept of symmetry - in a square painting, a balanced design becomes critically important. Initially I was reaching for a mirrored take on that, but it was too easy to look at and move past - it didn’t grab the viewer and ask them to stick around. So I found a middle ground - some symmetry, some differences. Here...

  check her out, bring her home Rose, 24x30, acrylic on cradeled panel (no need to frame, painting will arrive wired and ready to hang), $2800, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. If you’ve been following these Masked Bears , you’ll have noticed how the floral aspects are unique to each. It is great fun to dream up the next iteration, choose the appropriate Bear expression, and start to paint the magic. And it’s so rewarding, as the end results manifest with so much more strength than I could have imagined. These are all pulled from my visual memory banks, laced together by proprietary means and techniques that do not involve Ai. They are 100% human conceived and executed - something I’m starting to value more and more lately. Rose is now on my website for your direct purchasing, along with viewing in a room or right up close, until I offer her to the genera...

check her out, bring her home Vortex, 20x24, acrylic on cradeled panel (no need to frame), $2400, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. What does it mean to wear a mask? how does peering through one change the subject? how does viewing a subject wearing one impact the viewer? what is Bear saying when she adorns herself with a maelstrom of leaves and blooms? With each of these masked paintings, more questions surface. I don’t have any answers, but I sure am enjoying unearthing them. I welcome your thoughts. There are layers of florals masking Bear - lilac, wisteria, roses, heather, geranium and tulips. Together they are a mixed bouquet sworling with a fantastic mysterious energy. Vortex is on my website for direct purchasing, along with viewing in a room or right up close. I am so grateful for your interest in my work. Thank you so much for your support. Big Red Tulip...

check her out, bring her home Stargazer, 16x20, acrylic on cradeled panel (no need to frame), $1600, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. This lovely originally wore a mask dripping with rose petals, much like the cheek shields on a Roman gladiator’s helmet. While I loved the idea, it didn’t suit the square-ish 16x20 format - I’ve tabled it for a longer, taller composition. But that start did provide a great base for the petals to then take flight, which seemed perfectly suited to Bear’s awe-struck gaze. Initially I thought those lightest smaller flowers would instead be planets - literal stars orbiting Bear - but then this morning while in the midst of my yoga practice I saw little orchid blooms in my head, phalaenopsis, bobbing about. They seemed far more exciting than planets. And far more magical. I love that one of my followers on Facebook commented on an in proc...

Painting a Dog a Day (and a Cat) learn more and register It’s here! The course that has been 20 years in the making has arrived! (I know I usually send you painting announcements, but thought some of you might be interested in this as well) I committed to daily pet portraiture in 2006, thinking I would do it for 30 days or so. Painting a Dog a Day (which is still online and updated with every painting that comes off my easel) stretched into well over a decade. During that time I learned so much about working with clients while also developing a recognizable style and building a thriving studio business. And now I’m bringing it all to you. How to choose your resources, communicate with clients, create and finish the work, and send it out into the world. It’s all here. Along with some basic business practices and a wealth of challenges leveled for the beginning to advanced students. This is my 4th course through Kara Bullock Art - I can’t say enough about how wonderful her team and plat...

check her out, bring her home Divine, 16x20, acrylic on cradeled panel (no need to frame), $1600, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. First there was Masquerade, then Witness , followed by Sweetheart and most recently Divine . With each one, I learn something more about melting two separate objects together, and the idea of peering through a mask becomes all the more fascinating. I have been reading legends about Bear as Creator. She still lumbers through my dreams, watching or guarding or protecting a perimeter around me. And with Divine, she visited my garden and the yellow peonies which opened up a few days ago. What might we say, were we to meet our Maker? and what might She, in turn, have to say to us? Divine is on my website for direct purchasing, along with viewing in a room or right up close. I am so grateful for your interest in my work. Thank you so...