Deer Hunting

Deer Hunting, oil on canvas. This was painted for a commission aimed at documenting the Timucuan Indians of north Florida in the 1500's.  The scene was to illustrate deer hunting, the same theme originally drawn by a Spanish artist in about 1580, after a written account from 1550.  The goal of the commission, one of 10 by a historical/environmental preservation group (PublicTrustLaw.org) was for 10 artist's to create modern day interpretations of scenes originally drawn in 1580, aiming for greater historical, cultural accuracy and also for the geography, flora, and fauna of Florida.  I painted this imagined scene including the deer costumed camoflage which was illustrated in the original Spanish drawing, except the scene here is pretty much from my back yard but a creek replacing a trail.  I actually do have a creek in the back yard about 20 feet to the right of this location, however, and its tannin color inspired the yellow-red water here.

I like everything but the buck did not quite have the sense of alarm I looked for. I love the doe and fawn, as well as the overall ambience of the setting. 

The painting was really hard to photograph because of specular reflection from the weave, with a shiny canvas. This is actually an earlier version of the painting - the later one I did not get as good a photo of but added another Indian in the background by the big tree.: