Wildside Galleries by Chris Perry

11x14 scratchboard
Cheetah

For Sale at Silver Heron Gallery, Depoe Bay, Oregon

For Contact Information, see Link Section

Every photographer knows to always leave a shot or two in the camera for "just in case shots" on the way back to camp when shooting wildlife.

My problem was that I had just encountered a large sow with her 4 spring cubs, prior and all I could think of was that there could be nothing better than what was before me as sat in amazement watch their antics.

As the sun sank, it slipped into this fog and really diffused and changed all the colors in the sky and water. This is about the time I began to kick myself for not obeying that particular basic rule. This was of course before I jumped into the digital world and could have went back and traded some of the lesser shots for the more dramatic ones later.

As I hiked back to my tent, I traversed close to a marshy outlet form the larger lake and found these two sub adults playing in the shallows. They had no idea I has only 50 or so feet away. The sun filtered through the fog and lit everything a reddish-yellow and it reminded me of what it would have looked if there was a large forest fire.

I stayed long enough to commit it to memory and wrote the details down in my notepad, promising to try and paint what I could not shoot.
The initial images immediately went down on the canvas when I got home 10 days later, but it wasn't until just this fall that I actually committed to finishing the image and rekindling the memory.

Unlike other subjects I paint the details are subdued as I tried my best to recapture the feeling I had of that moment, which was colors and shades and amazement. The only thing that is missing is the sounds of the two growling at each other during it all.

Once again, I was blessed to be alone, in their world and included in a memory that I won’t ever forget.

Truly blessed!

Note: There is some glare on this shot that shouldn't be there, but it is close enough.

This piece is for sale at the Silver Heron Gallery, in Depoe Bay, Or

Band of Brother, oil on canvas was inspired from a long time obsession with these apex marine mammals. I always thought they were more than the acclaimed wolves of the sea, proclaimed in many publications. I’m not even sure I like the Killer Whale acronym they’ve been labeled with. I think of these beautiful animals as highly evolved, adaptive and social residents of the coastal seas. Like other Cetaceans, Dolphins and Sea Lions, Orcas have a natural playful and curious side just as their land bearing namesakes ‘Wolves’ do.

Flipping though a toddler book for Orcas, I came across a page that exhibited the traits that connect me with them. There were a few with inquisitive expression and suspended in space as if to give the viewer the impression that they wanted to be close enough to see, but at arms length just to be safe. The images were rudimentary, but the expression of their sprit spoke to me.

I am pretty sure this could lead to a series.