Artist Commentary: Portrait of a Bear" is the first of a series of my fascinating new subject, the bear. I have great admiration for the bear and consider them an excellent totem animal, so I find them to be great to paint. I first layered and glued squares and rectangles of handmade papers onto the entire canvas to begin this painting. You can still see this textured pattern under the layers of colors. I love the textures you can get from this technique. My palette for this piece is predominately blue/green, accented with iridescent gold. Finally, I added a bit of white on the snout of the bear for the focal point. I was inspired to capture the soulful and maybe even sad expression on the bear's face, which for me, evokes an emotional response and understanding of the bear.