Therianthropy

2013-14 - All images are painted in oil on panel. Paintings are 16" x 32"

A friend who does beautiful, realistic portraits said, "You paint rocks really well, think of the figure as a rock in the shape of a human." Never having taken on the figure in oil before, I took his advice. After researching a good flesh tone palette, I dove into painting human-shaped rocks.

I had a dream years ago that stuck with me. I was being led down a torchlit stone corridor. Next to me was the Egyptian god Anubis. (I didn't know it until I looked up the jackal-headed diety the next day.) Walking in silence, I turned to examine him closely. He was taller then me, maybe 6'8". I could see every hair on his head and ears and looked into his large eye. There was a cool, blue, super-intelligence that surrounded the air around him and seemed to penetrate my mind. The vividness of the dream and the reality of a creature like that stuck with me.

I was periodically having visions of these creatures out in nature. Plain as day, just standing there for a fleeting second and then gone. It was time to manifest these in paint.

  • astutix detail 1
  • ardeidix detail 1
  • cannix detail 1
  • cervidex detail 1
  • timidix detail 1
  • cervidex detail 2
  • timidix detail 2