Winter Bear

Before I ever picked up a brush for Winter Bear, this bear lived in my head. I could see him perfectly, stretched out across the ice, relaxed and completely at ease in the cold. He felt playful to me... almost lazy in the best way, like he had nowhere to be and all the time in the world.

Unlike most of my work, I had no reference photo to pull from. This one was pure imagination. I started with realistic colors and somewhere along the way decided that wasn’t enough for him. He needed more life, more personality, so I let the color take over.

What started as realism turned into something more expressive, and that shift ended up defining the entire piece. Painted in 2022, he has become my most popular piece, and honestly, I’m not surprised. Some paintings just have a life of their own from the very beginning.  

This bear lived in my imagination long before he lived on canvas, no reference photo, no plan, just a vision I couldn’t shake until I painted it. Of everything I’ve created, he connects with people more than anything else I’ve made, and that never gets old for me.