Details
• Partners – Montana Moonrise is available as a paper reproduction or a stretched canvas reproduction.
• All of our fine art prints are signed and numbered by Bob, and are reproduced on archival material.
• Stretched canvas reproductions are created on demand, so require an extra week for shipping.
One of the wonderful aspects of executing a commissioned painting is that it provides me with both the opportunity and motivation to render an image I might not have otherwise considered. In this case, hunting prairie grouse under a rising moon, in the expansive grasslands of Montana, behind a wire-haired pointing griffon.
The painting, “Partners – Montana Moonrise” was commissioned by a collector of my work and is loosely based on several photographs taken by his hunting partner. Of course, the images I create are not limited solely to the reference material I work from. While the photography is helpful, decisions about composition, color, value, atmosphere and light are not subjugated to it.
As I mature as an artist, I find my brushwork becoming looser and more descriptive. I’m not interested in painting detail, as much as the allusion of it.
When painting upland and waterfowl scenes. I attempt to forget about details and let my brushwork describe the image; textures created by light upon the land, the tension of the hunter, and the stoicism of his dog.
I endeavor to stay loose and impressionistic when I can, and if it works, I end up with an image that places me into the landscape
When it’s time to paint the birds, however, I struggle. Do I maintain my loose brushwork… or succumb to the tyranny of detail and become a feather painter?
In this painting I decided to render the flushing birds as the hunter saw them, blurred shapes, in and out of focus in mere seconds.



