Bearula, 2022

oil on panel
8”x 8” (21cm x 21cm)

In a small sea of blue tufted fur sits a funny little bear face, staring at the viewer with deep orange eyes and a serious pouting mouth, out of which poke two little white fangs. Think of Bearula as Dracula’s friendly teddy bear companion, getting into playful trouble and supernatural shenanigans.

I had initially picked orange for the color of the bear’s eyes as a complement to the saturated blue of the fur, and this in turn gave him a nice spooky feel which led to the eventual title. That is one of the magical aspects of the Fur Faces series, the process of painting them will often lead me in an unexpected direction and create a wholly unique story that I could have never planned out. In the case of Bearula, not only did it yield a character that is unlike any other of the Fur Faces, but it also lent itself to a number of little tactile painterly moments, like the quick peaks of paint that droop over the bottom edge of the piece, blurring the lines between the pictorial world into our own.