Untamed Land

Untamed Land
Untamed Land

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Painted Foxes

More blog posts about the Pribilofs are being temporarily waylaid by my latest paintings. The photo above is an extreme close up of part of a painting that I completed just before I went to the Pribilofs.
Another close up from the same painting.
The complete painting, "In The Foxhole", 9x12".
The distinctive, Arctic Foxes on the Pribilofs inspired me to do a painting. I thought that this photo would be a good choice as the basis of a painting.
I liked the mood of this photo with its soft lighting and the rugged rocks.
The first stage of the painting. I could have done the whole painting in this "A La Prima" style. That kind of painting may even be more popular in the art world but leaving paintings in such an unrefined state brings me no sense of fulfillment. I like naturalistic paintings.
This is a more developed background, albeit less colorful. There is a trade-off between different elements like, color, texture, and atmosphere.
A rough version of the foreground rocks.
After I refined the foreground rocks, I added some kelp and roughed in the fox.
The completed painting. The actual painting looks much better than the photo indicates but I have a feeling that I will refine this painting a little more in the future.
A close-up of, "The Island Fox" 16x20".

3 comments:

Marc Calvo said...

John!,your last travels,must leave full of inspiration for your artwork,i'm agree that the photography of the fur seal its a good starting point for create the environment of the arctic fox.Bery bery beautifull and interesting the travels of your last posts!!.

Camera Trap Codger said...

Love the progression on the arctic fox. Beautiful stuff.

Jeremy Pearse said...

Very nice painting - great to see some new work. I have very much enjoyed you last couple of posts about the Pribilofs, very atmospheric series of photos and by all accounts a fabulous trip! Great birds too - hope to see more paintings from the visit.