Creating in the Artist Zone

New Polar Bear Painting

This painting is the direct result of the painting I created before it. That painting is “Blue Bear”, a large polar bear portrait I totally enjoyed painting. However, at 30 ” x 40″ in size, and monochromatic in palette, it took a lot of time, focussed attention, and physical effort to create.

How Things Unfold

One of the joys of painting is that artist often goes into “the zone”. You may have heard runners speak of this loss of time and in the moment experience, but did you know that painters experience this, too? The day I finished "Blue Bear", I still had the time and urge to paint. I spontaneously decided to work on a smaller canvas I had in the studio, and not begin the next large work I had planned. Because this painting was unplanned, I had no clear vision of what it would be other than to keep to my "Polar Bear Dreams" series theme of monochromatic blue polar bears.

I was pretty relaxed as I blocked in the bear’s portrait, as after all, I was basically playing at the end of the day. As I laid down the blue under painting, I got to thinking how much I enjoy showing movement in the fur (see the dashes on Blue Bear’s portrait), and that I love doing the brush stroke that emphasises this.

Next thing I knew I had a swirly sky with stylized northern lights and stars. And colour followed the day after. I think the fun and joy I felt while creating this polar bear tribute shines through in the work. And the portrait has that odd mix found in the polar bear – mighty, beautiful, intelligent, and somehow goofy at the same time. My good spirits played a part in conveying the spirit of the bear and sky above. The title of this painting is "Starry Night Van Gogh Bear"

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