Rabbit Fighter

Rabbit Fighter

"Rabbit Fighter" - oil on canvas, 15 x 30 x .75 inches.  Ready to hang.  Available here, at Artfinder and at Blue Thumb.


Shady politician in my bed
Tying bolts of lightning to his head
Call me Rabbit Fighter you know its true
'Cause babe I'll Rabbit fight all over you

Tramp king of the city he's my friend
Moondog's just a prophet to the end
Call me Rabbit Fighter you know its true
'Cause babe I'll Rabbit fight all over you
- from RABBIT FIGHTER by T. REX

Random rabbits continue to multiply in the studio, including this guy, who surely can hold his own in any altercation.  I'm pretty sure he just clobbered a few villains down the road.  Rabbits as home security?

​For all of us who are feeling a bit feisty, prickly and provoked by the state of things in the news, it is a good idea to have a rabbit fighter in which to park our inner brawler.  Each morning I enter the studio, give him my growing stack of grievances and let him go to work.  He never reports back to me, so I'm not quite sure what he has done.   But I feel better and he doesn't seem to mind.  :)

​I can't swear to it, but it is entirely possible he has grown a bit larger each day.  Hmmmmmm.

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work in process

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​About the art:  beginning with one of Valerie Erichsen Thomson's partially completed canvases (which provides an underpainting of rich, deep colors) and sketching with colored pencil.  Slowly adding layers of thinned paint (I am now using walnut oil instead of Liquin, better for the environment and less toxic for the artist) and carving back through with a chopstick or rubber wedge to reveal hints of that rich underpainting.

80 million layers or so later, a final coat of thick paint with a palette knife on the rabbit's garment and body to add texture.  Once dried, a coat of Gamvar varnish to bring out the darks and make the fiery colors sing.