Cautious Roamer

Description

The Red Fox is known to be a rather shy and cautious animal. It has such sensitive hearing that it can hear a prey such as a small mouse, through a thick blanket of snow. In most of my paintings, I like to have an overall harmony of colours but in this particular case, I chose to keep the picture simple by showing off the beautiful red-brown tones of the fox against the cool blue-white colour of the snow. I deliberately kept the foreground simple with just the suggestion of a small creek, some blades of dead frost-covered grass and a couple of birch trees to create more depth and balance. The angle of the animal on the snowy slope helps guide our eyes to where there might be prey just a leap away by the water's edge.

Some people think it's quicker and easier to paint winter scenes because snow takes up a lot of the space, but the time and patience needed to paint the subtle tones and textures of light and shadow on the snow is a really challenging and time-consuming task. For me, the Red Fox is such a beautiful animal that I sincerely wish humans had domesticated the Red Fox as well as the dog, for I would truly love to have one as a pet.