Painting the Whitetail Buck

  As the fall hunting season begins my mind cant help but drift to those prevalent whitetail deer that roam the forests of North America.  I am by no means an avid hunter, but I do occasionally find myself being called to the deep woods to hunt these great creatures.  Nothing can beat watching a great buck emerge from a thickly wooded forest in the light of a morning dawn.
  A few days ago however I had a small surgery that has had me laid up for the time being.  It was nothing major, just enough to keep me in the house.  So there I sit, unable to wet a fly or notch my bow and sit among the changing colors of the forest to wait for a deer to pass by.  For a guy that can't sit still for long and always has a project in the works, it is a brutally long recovery.  Today however I felt good enough to exercise my mind and soon found myself picking up paint and paper to paint an outdoor scene that I can only imagine.

This is quite the departure from my usual paintings of trout and fly fishing but I am sure that even the anglers out there can enjoy a Fall Whitetail Buck in a wooded scene.  There might be even a few hunters out there that will stumble on this blog and appreciate this painting.
As for the painting itself, it incorporates many elements that I have never really tried before.  First the deer - I have painted a buck before but never one in such a setting.  It took some practice sketching out the deer and the colors of fur took some experimentation but I think it turned out okay.  Next is the forest - For a guy that concentrates on water and the fish that swim in it, the fall colors of the forest was a real challenge for me.  I decided to forget about the details and go with a classical quick brush stroke approach.  Adding in the lighter sky and barks of the trees with the colors and thin dark branches eventually gave me the contrast I was looking for.
    I am calling it "Fall Whitetail Buck".  The painting measures roughly 11"x9" but will probably fit best in a 8x10 matted frame.  It IS FOR SALE.  Just email me for the details if your interested.  If you would like a print of this work you can email me as well and if I find enough interest in it I might run off a limited count of 8x10 prints.