Polar Bear Study

polar bear study

Polar Bear – Holding the World 

Polar bears had been in my thoughts for a long time. Not sure why but I felt they represented the  lingering resilience of nature on the edge.  As I broke the surface of the paint or rather dry brushed the background on this scratchy paper a shape efinitely appeared. This is the technique I use for drawing-scratchy chalk first till I ‘touch’ the feeling of the animal. The I enhance with detail focussing on light and shade.  I certainly had to go look at some photos of the bear but I rarely use reference…simply an eye here, a paw there. This stance I made up.  Not quite perfect but you get the gist….Inspite of this he  stands solid, front paw holding the Earth, protective, calm, maybe a sense of wanting attention.
He looks at me — or maybe at all of us — with a steady glare.
There’s a quiet strength here, born from resilience and solitude. He doesn’t seem to yell at me but simply reaches out, beckoning, sensing the shifts in the world around him.

Symbols of resilience

To his side, bamboo leans into the warm yellow light — fragile but determined. The ice melts, the Earth warms. Even the coldest places are not untouched; change is creeping in everywhere.

The Arctic poppies and edelweiss in the foreground, tiny glimmers of beauty in the seeming vastness, speak of life, resilience and hope.
Behind him, misty mountains rise, ice-capped and enduring, while civilizations — buildings hidden in fog — seem swallowed by the vastness of eternity.

The game of life, a checkerboard floor, holds him tenuously, playful , nebulous a reminder that even in strange or unexpected places, grounding is possible. Life must go on.

I don’t know exactly what he’s saying. Perhaps he’s asking me to notice, to pause, to hold what we care about with care. Perhaps he reaches out to my heart and whispers, “We matter too.”

What does he say…

There’s something in his presence that stirs my own reflections: patience, allowing, showing up for what matters without forcing it. Even in seemingly empty moments, there is feedback, information.

For me he feels like a mirror — steady, observant, sort of insisting on attention. Watching him, I am thinking a little more about what it means to move through the world with a peaceful heart and protect what you can, without fanfare, without noise, simply because it is right.

I felt polar bears for a long time.  Maybe a painting to continue this conversation……paintings always to to you.

Lovely to see you here. Thank you for reading my stories.
Keep creative in your world ……. blaze