Bear Portrait: Randy Wyatt

February 2025 | 12 x 16 | Gouache with Coloured Pencil on HotPress Watercolour Paper

A handsome Bear out for a relaxing day.

I normally prefer to focus on the artwork itself for the descriptions, but this is one of the rare times I need to talk about the subject - though it will give a tiny bit of insight into how this series works. The man in the painting is Randy Wyatt - who passed away in May of 2023. He was a sweetheart of a man who meant a lot, to a lot of people. I'm not going to try and pretend that I was closer to him than I really was - he was one of the many guys who I lived close enough to meet, but didn't get to know until he'd moved away. Anyway...

Every guy in the Bear Portrait series I know in some way. I contacted them and asked their permission to include them in this series and, especially since there would be prints and a book of the collection - all of which I would be selling - I have asked the men to signed a form granting me permission to use their likenesses, while specifying limitations in what kind of reference I could use. In Randy's case, he passed away before I got a signature from him. I mailed him the form to sign, but he was in the hospital before he ever signed it. So I almost cut him from the series. But when first I asked him if I could use him in the series via text, I gave him this big long spiel, to which he responded simply, "I give you full permission to paint my likeness." It was so quick, so without question or pause... it's difficult to describe now, but in context of the moment - it was so supportive of my art - and Randy was a huge supporter of the arts. Anyway, I felt I had enough permission to go ahead and include him.

And I think the painting turned out quite nice. I struggled a little selecting the right photo of Randy to use for reference. There are some terrific pictures of him when he was younger wearing a set of angel wings that, given the circumstances, I was tempted to use - but this one just seemed to "say" Randy the most to me. I tweaked a few of the colours from how they appeared in the reference photo, and created piece I am happy to include in my series, and hope it serves as tribute to a really great guy. 

Purchase: https://www.thegeekcanpaint.com/warehouse-open-edition-prints/art_print_products/randy-wyatt?product_gallery=208974&product_id=7874031#!