The Painting Of The Month Special For April is (Drumroll please)

Sweetheart Bear!

Sweetheart Bear is a lovely portrait painting in oil of a dear little polar bear cub face on a 12” x 12” wood panel. It is one one of three paintings in my Baby’s Breath Series.

I think this painting about babies, innocence, spring and nature is perfect for The Painting of The Month Special.

Sweetheart Bear is 12” x 12” oil painting on wood panel.

Close up of Sweetheart Bear . Look at those beautiful eyes. ©Christine Montague

The fur on this little cub’s sweet face, inspired by a photo I took of a very real cub, perfectly forms a heart, so the title Sweetheart Bear was a given!

What’s With The Baby’s Breath Flower Crown?

Baby’s Breath (Gypsophila) are lovely little white flowers on delicate stems. This flower represents purity, innocence and everlasting love. These attributes perfectly represent our baby bear. Flower crowns have a long history of being given to those we honour and celebrate. But this crown is also a reminder that our lives - nature’s and humanity’s, are as intertwined as the flowers in the crown.

A Featured Painting Mean’s a Special Price

Once a month in 2025, I will select a painting to be featured, and offer it at special value. (PS Do you know if you sign up for my newsletter to receive the announcement in advance?)

Sweetheart Bear

Original oil painting

12” x 12” x 1.5 “ wood panel

Edges nicely finished in black

Wired and ready to hang

Certificate of Authenticity supplied.

SOLD

Here’s the other paintings in the series -

Left is Sweetheart Bear Middle isLittle Innocent Right is Little Hero of The North.

Each are 12” x 12” oil paintings.

Merry Christmas December 25 Polar Bear Art Advent Calendar

Wishing you Peace & Joy Today

Only Two Polar Bears To Go

Here’s the 23rd Polar Bear Face for December 23rd

Here's polar bear face #23! A sweetheart of a bear for December 23rd! Enjoy your day!

Do you know that all my polar bear portraits are inspired either from photos I have taken of polar bears or are from my imagination. In this case this furry little face is inspired by a photo I took of the email bear, Juno, who was born @thetorontozoo , spent a while at the @assiniboineparkzoo and then returned pre pandemic to the Toronto Zoo again. Learn more about Sweetheart Polar Bear (on special) here

Here's Polar Bear #22 for December 22 of My Polar Bear Art Advent Calendar 2021

Fuzzball and The Poppies

Today's addition to the Polar Bear Art Advent Calendar is very late because we had a wonderful early Christmas celebration with the new little cub in our family! It seemed appropriate that a baby bear should be the art for today. (To see Fuzzball & The Poppies in its entirety & to learn its symbolism , please click here). I hope your December 22 is (was ) a good one!

Here's December 20 Polar Bear Art Advent Calendar

We’re All in This Together

Today's Polar Bear has a couple of titles - one of which We Are All In This Together. And whether climate change issues (what this was created for with its crown of Canadian provincial & territorial flowers ) or the pandemic, we most certainly are, aren't we? Enjoy your December 20th, may you be safe and well.

To learn more about this available 30” x 30” painting, please click here. Do you know I actually will consider any reasonable offer on larger art? Please contact me here

An Invitation to Bring Feel Good Summertime Memories Into Your Home

I’m pleased to announce that my painting Hydrangea Blues has been awarded first prize in the Kefi Art Gallery “Summertime Memories” online juried fine art exhibit in a virtual gallery . I am honoured that a detail of the painting is is used on the invitation below. To read more about this summer artwork, please scroll down.

To see the complete painting , and enjoy a walk through a virtual gallery, please click Kefi Art Gallery (opens in a new window)

Invitation to Kefi Art Gallery Summertime Memories . This is a detail of Hydrangea Blues. Please scroll down to view the complete painting.

Hydrangea Blues is a 60" wide by 20" high oil painting on canvas.

My oil paintings of summer offer escape into days at the cottage or by the lake. They are about the promise of contented, quiet, and mindful moments alone, often before the day begins, or when it is done. They are about solitude without loneliness.  They are meant to invoke memories and emotions - good ones - but  will probably stir up longing for carefree days and warmer weather, too. 

My scenic figurative artworks are mostly inspired by the Canadian locales I vacation at and am fond of, usually in Ontario. Hydrangea Blues, could be easily be in Ontario, and is meant to be universal in mood, but in truth, it is inspired by the beautiful blue hydrangeas that surrounded the century old cottage I stayed at in Chappaquiddick, Mass., USA.  

In Hydrangea Blues, a young woman, a girl really,  sits in the shade of the cottage. She is lost in thought, her feet resting on the cool flagstone path.  She is probably relieved to not only be out of the heat, but to be away from parents and siblings. Whether she misses her friends or her phone, we don’t know. Her thoughts are hidden, as she almost is, amongst the gentle blue hydrangeas. 

This painting is one of the most ambitious artworks I have created. A lot of intricate work went into making sure the overlapping leaves and flowers took the eye up and around the figure, across the canvas, then down to zig zag along the path and up the legs and arms to the subject’s face.  The brush strokes in her hair point to a branch in the bush, and so our trip around the canvas begins again. 

Like most of the world, I love the colour blue, and enjoy using it in my art. It is a popular colour because we equate it to nature , especially sky and water.  

It actually makes one feel good to look at a blue painting, and this one is no different. All those beautiful blue flowers, set amongst the fresh green of the leaves, were a joy to paint as well as to look upon. 

This  painting is created in a slightly more graphic style than what I usually use. There is a lot of an outline to the shapes and the colours are more selective. But I feel this works as  there is a brightness and youthfulness in this, that suits both the young model and the subject matter. 

Hydrangea Blues. ©Christine Montague 20” x 60” x 1.5” oil painting on canvas.