Lagomorph

Lagomorph

"Lagomorph" - oil on cradled wood panel, 24 x 24 x 1.5.  Ready to hang. Available here and at Artfinder.


"The mushroom’s gills were the deep-red color of severed muscle, the almost-violet shade that contrasts so dreadfully with the pale pink of viscera. I had seen it any number of times in dead deer and dying soldiers, but it startled me to see it here. "
 - from What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

You wouldn't think a hare would be unsettling.

Rabbits, bunnies, lagomorphs.  But we just read Kingfisher's retelling of  "The Fall of the House of Usher" and now the hare has become a little more than a ball of fur with a twitching nose.

Kingfisher paints with words.  Mushroom, mold and hare become visceral under her expert pen.  And so it called to me to take paint to lagomorph and see what peculiarity I could conjure.

At first it's difficult to draw a hare that is anything but sweetness.  But now I admit to being a wee bit obsessed with the creepiness of these creatures, and find myself sneaking up on this painting after dark, just to be slightly startled and delighted.  More to come along this path, I think.  

Just so we don't encounter him on an actual path. :)

---

About the art:  beginning with a wood panel gesso'd thickly and with random texture.  Initial sketch in oil crayon over the gesso.  Slowly layering thinned oil paint and allowing the underpainting to dry thoroughly.  Applying then a thick layer of varying blues over the rabbit and dragging the paint with rubber wedge and squeegee.  Allowing liquin and paint-soaked brushes to leave trails through the drying paint, then adding back a few details.  Check out a process video at  Instagram.com/jenjovanart