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The no-shadow aspect of “Hopeful” gives the viewer the impression of a bunny in its own universe…
The original painting of “Hopeful” was completed in 2015, and is one of the very first Paintings Brent ever created in the Stuffed Animal series…
It is one of two paintings of Brent’s that we see a ‘floating’ plushie and the emphasis of the piece entirely on the cuteness of the subject itself.
The complementary gold/purple colors of “Hopeful” are typical of this period in Brent’s career when he was in the beginning stages of discovering his signature paint-mixing process and his love for the power of complementary colors.
Viewers can see in both the emerging Velvet Technique and the striped pattern where he was expanding what he was capable of as an artist.
“I really wanted to explore and add complexity within the color itself so that is why you see additional colors in there… it was an adventure to me to really learn how to have the light fall over the different colors and shadows and highlights AND making them all mend together.”
Fun Fact… the white part of the mouth is entirely done with a palette knife and the seemingly stitched mouth line, that is where later Teddy Bears got their realistic stitched-in looking mouths!
“Hopeful” is the Inspiration of Brent’s future bunny pieces! Just like “Rex” was the first of many dinosaurs, “Hopeful” was the first of all the Stuffed Animal and cRaZy stuFFed aniMAL bunnies…