Midnight Duet (watercolor 7 x 10) $75
Noon Trio (watercolor 7 x 10) $75
I painted it at my brother’s woodland house above Albuquerque, which he had kindly lent us for a couple of nights. I was working at the dining room table engrossed in the trumpet when a bump against the window caught my attention. That was as close as I’ve ever seen a live bear. He as only about six feet away peering curiously in. I wasn’t terrified, but I felt very, very alive and my brain when into hyper-drive. The windows on the bear’s side of the dining room were closed, but just on the other corner they wide open. So I stood up to close them, and the bear turned and lumbered away looking back over his shoulder just before disappearing into the forest. I closed the rest of the downstairs windows just for good measure.
I told my father and niece at breakfast at a local cafe and got a raft of neighborhood bear stories. The most amusing centered around a bear reaching in through a kitchen window to sample a birthday cake. But mostly the bears just want garbage and quickly learn which neighborhoods put out their garbage when. I think mine was mostly curious. “Look at the funny people.”
Prints of both paintings are available here.
