Wild Things Artwork
by Patsy Lindamood

24" H x 25.5" W pastel work based on my trip to Glacier National Park Summer 2008. Working on this piece has made me pine to be back in Glacier again. The painting has brought back so many wonderful emotions about my passion for what is the most fabulous national park I've yet been able to experience. For me, hiking the trails of Many Glacier is like being in another world, totally segregated from the hubbub and "busyness" of my usual dayjob world - running a credit union! The opportunity to find myself in the presence such immense and fascinating creatures as the grizzly, the moose, big horn rams, and mountain goats up close and personally is just amazing!

The experience and the reference photos that gave life to this painting are so vivid for me that I can tell you exactly where I was, on which trail at which point along the trail, how I came upon the bear, and the utter excitement I felt as I realized I was in the presence of a bear. I was never scared, just awed by the vision. She was just so solid, and so self-absorbed. Yeah, she checked me out, and I made sure she knew just where I was, but she quickly determined I was not nearly important or irritating enough to interrupt her pursuit of insects in fallen, dead logs.

The strong colors, the "in your face" pose, and even the placement of the pine bough just over the head of the sow all have meaning for me. It was that kind of a moment, so strong and so vivid, and yet she never totally emerged all the way through the piney boughs under which she was ambling.

Can you feel it?