It’s important to be clear from the start…there are no hidden ‘deep meanings’ or statements in the portraits…my aim with painting is to show a character or an expression…to portray the specific animal as I see it as much as possible 🙂 .

But I do have a philosophy about art! because it’s a means of expressing something, or showing it, without the need for words. while I write my thesis on animal communication and whether it can be defined as language, it’s very clear that spoken language is only a tiny part of communication. Even for people – most of what we say is not ‘said’. And body language and expression can speak volumes, as any animal lover knows intuitively. So expressing animals visually instead of using words somehow makes more sense if I want to show what they might be ‘saying’ and give an impression of their character 🙂

So when I paint an animal, despite no hidden deeper meanings, if you look at the expression I hope to show not only what the animal looks like – but suggest their personality and what they might have been feeling/’saying’ 🙂 . I don’t add a lot of detail in the background, but there is sometimes a small detail or suggestion of what as there to give context and tell the more complete story of each character.

I introduce them all to you here 🙂