Paintings of Wildlife & Nature by Rebecca Latham
Our show at the Moose Horn Gallery in Paradise Valley (near Livingston, Montana) opened today, with the artist reception this evening. I have an easel set up in the gallery and have been painting on my new cougar piece during the reception. Things are going well ;) 
I spent a little time in the Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks for some inspiration, study, etc. There were quite a few elk in the area, as well as a few other animals. There is always something new to see. :D I just love visiting this place to see all of the wildlife, not to mention the unique landscape. :)
I just started sketching out a cougar, as you can see in the photo. I’ll be painting in the Moose Horn Gallery during our show, so this piece will be the in-progress painting that I will be working on. The cougar in this piece is from a rescue facility for wild animals that were ‘pets’ and were mistreated and/or could no longer be cared for by their owners.
I just finished a new wolf puppy painting "Bump on a Log". The little wolf that is featured in the painting had a lot of personality and really enjoyed getting into trouble. ;) I tried to capture his mischievous tendencies in the expression of the piece.
I will have the painting up for the show reception at Galleries West on Friday night. :)
I just sketched out a few designs for some new paintings of western hummingbirds. They have such a variety of them out here in the western states. In Minnesota and the rest of the eastern US we have only the ruby throated hummingbird species visiting. The two hummingbirds featured in my sketches in this post are the Allen’s hummingbird and the Rufous hummingbird.
I did a little painting in the gallery this evening. I am painting a little miniature of a cougar kitten. I would say that it’s about half done or so. I’ll be posting a picture of the painting a little later. :)
Interaction with the animals that I paint is so important in my research for new paintings. I just had the opportunity to help bottle feed a litter of wolf puppies that were only a few weeks old. Two bottles for a litter of about half a dozen hungry little wolves makes for quite a bit of sibling rivalry. ;) They were so sweet. A few of them even did a little howling for us. It was such a wonderful experience! This is a sketch of one of the little wolf pups that I was lucky enough to visit with.
I hope to begin on a few new miniature paintings in the next few days. Our exhibition opens tomorrow in Jackson, Wyoming at Galleries West Fine Art, so I will be painting on some of the pieces in the gallery during the show. :D
A wildflower hike started off the morning for me today — of course, it wasn’t exclusively wildflowers. ;) I was followed for part of my research trek by a little resident red squirrel. He wasn’t too thrilled that I stopped to study some flowers near his tree and voiced his opinion of it. I thought it was a wonderful to see this little creature defending his territory, even though I get to see red squirrels in my own backyard. :)
Today I am finishing a number of paintings for our show at Galleries West out here in Jackson Hole. I am a bit anxious to get to Jackson Hole, anticipation for the show I suppose. :)
I am doing quite a bit of painting out here in the Grand Teton National Park, but I did find the time to peel myself away from the easel a few times to walk around a bit in the park. There is always a lot to see on hikes in this area. I spotted a Townsend warbler pair along a trail in the park today while doing a little research. :D
Doing a little sketching today. :) I have some ideas for some new paintings and am just getting them drawn out in pencil. It has been thunderstorming on and off all day today, as weather often is in the mountains, so it has been nice to do a little work inside.
