March comes in like a Lion...or maybe like a Bear oil on linen, 30" x 36"

 I enjoyed painting the bears in "The Baker and the Bear" (see earlier post) so much I decided to do another version of the painting with the baker in profile, facing the light (quoting Vermeer here) and the bear heading toward us head on. I was working on this painting during the month of March and other spring-like things started creeping in-The forest just starting to green up, a Bluebird looking for a place to nest, a Rose-breasted Grosbeak making a rare appearance, and a bullfrog making an unexpected appearance from the open cupboard. He is also making an important compositional maneuver by allowing the viewer to move up through that corner of the painting back to the window. Sometimes many elements influence the direction a painting takes. In this one the season took control. 

Here are some of the preliminary studies

charcoal study

gouache study

underpainting