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From the series Between Stillness and Flight: Portraits of a Whitetail Herd
The General is the first painting in Between Stillness and Flight, a series inspired by the whitetail herd that lives in the woods surrounding our Arkansas home.
He is a deer I know.
A mature buck with an unmistakable presence, The General holds a particular place within the herd. Yet what drew me to paint him wasn't simply his size or stature. It was the contradiction I had watched over time: strength paired with an unexpected tolerance and gentleness toward the other deer around him.
The painting was built through layers of loose drawing, transparent color, veils, ink and partially obscured marks. His form appears, disappears and re-emerges across the surface, allowing the abstraction to remain as important as the portrait itself.
At the center is his eye. I have always felt that the eyes are where you glimpse something deeper in these animals: their alertness, vulnerability and individual presence.
The General is a portrait of one particular buck, but also the beginning of a larger exploration of the fragile space these animals inhabit every day, somewhere between stillness and flight.