All About January’s Featured Painting of The Month
Into The Sunset 1 is the first painting to be featured in my Painting of the Month Special Value Offer. It is also the first painting I created in a series of polar bear portraits that capture the spirit of spring in the Arctic—a time when the polar bear’s solitary journey for food, shelter, and companionship comes to a close for another season. The long, dark days of winter are finally replaced by the returning daylight and the stunning sunsets of the Arctic sky.
Into The Sunset 1. 24” x 24” oil painting on canvas. Copyright Christine Montague
I began this series during one of the coldest winters I’ve experienced in Toronto (not this year, which has been great). Despite the frigid temperatures outside my cozy studio, painting the bright skies and vibrant colours of the Arctic landscape brought a sense of warmth.
If you know my other artwork, you’ll have observed the colour palette in this painting is quite different than the one I usually use. Typically, my polar bears exist in a world of the blues and blacks of dark water and the Arctic night.
Here’s an example of my Darker palette. HERE
In Into The Sunset 1, greys , mauves and peaches are the featured colours. Interestingly, this painting is on trend in that it goes well with Pantone’s Colour of the Year - Mocha Mousse.
I’ve been fortunate to visit Churchill, Manitoba twice, including an educational stay at the fabulous Churchill Northern Studies Centre (CNSC). Both these visits took place in the fall, with winter setting in. But, lucky me, I have experienced Kinngait, Nunavut, in the spring, when the waters began to open up, and we had to be vigilant for polar bears in town. I try to bring these real life impressions of the North to my art, even though the scenarios are always from my imagination.
The Polar Bear Question. An example of a polar bear in dark water. More Here Copyright Christine Montague