An excerpt from my post on the three dog characters in “the Wild Hunt” painting.

An excerpt from my post on the three dog characters in “the Wild Hunt” painting.

I felt like there should be dogs in the painting; I love dogs. Once I knew I was doing a painting of a whole host of kids and animals running through a forest, I planned on fitting in a dog somewhere. They feature in more of my work than I’m always aware of. They weren’t the first thing I added, but they were close. These three are a breed I have never actually interacted with: I’m just in love with the idea of these dogs. Rhodesian Ridgebacks are the Navy Seals of dogs. It’s true, there’s a Dogs 101 clip on YouTube that says so, so it’s obviously a real thing. They’re very courageous, strong, tough dogs. And they look so freaking cool … every time I think about these dogs, I think of … Jacob wrestling with God, not letting God go. And I start to see the correlation between these dogs … start seeing them as almost as a representation of a people who are trained to hunt the Lion, to pursue Him without fear, without rest. Which led me to Isaiah 62:6-7:

On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.

That word “watchmen” then made me think about the other part of the R.R.’s purpose: to guard the family home. A guard dog’s purpose is to always alert and aware of what’s going on around them … Part of what I wanted to give the kids with this painting was a visual representation or reminder of what I knew they were going to be learning about all week in camp … It’s really intimidating putting all this out there; I don’t usually want to tell everyone the meaning an “story” behind the pictures I create. And I don’t know if I have better words to explain all of what I felt I wanted to give to the kids in this piece. Maybe I’ll get better at this as these post get written.

#Magnificent #adventure #artreach #artreach2016 #children #running #forest #elk #dog #Sparrow #eagle #watercolor #painting #illustration #coloredpencil #Whitestag #wildhunt #oak #epic