Bear Sees Hiker (ORIGINAL)

5.5x8 inches, framed in white with a double matted board, prismacolor pencil original drawing on sepia-toned acid-free paper. This was a black bear Adam and I encountered in Providence Canyon, Georgia.

This piece is currently on the walls at PaLatte Coffee & Art in Grand Rapids, MI if you would like to purchase or view in person.

There weren’t supposed to be any bears, and the bear ran off in the opposite direction. I wanted to make a drawing of how surprising the encounter was for us, and how unsurprised the bear seemed. The distorted roundness of the bear was done to make it seem like the bear was on the verge of exploding, a representation between its two choices that day, to fight us or to run off. Generally black bears pose no threat and run off, but mother bears and young male bears can get threatened by people and attack. I wanted to commemorate this memory by drawing it, and highly recommend that people check out Providence Canyon as it is absolutely worth the hike!