Artist & Painter Rebecca Latham’s Nature & Wildlife Art

A tour of Merritt Island today.  Everything was just beautiful - and so many birds!! :)  I have been to this area before, but hadn’t been able to spend adequate time in the refuge for more in-depth study.  Truthfully, I would have liked to have spent a great deal more time than just today, but I do have to get back to the studio sometime to catch up on a few deadlines.

A visit to Sea World for some oceanic reference and study.  I especially enjoyed seeing the polar bear exhibit where the water is kept at a specific temperature for the comfort of the bear - simulating it’s natural habitat.

We had a bit of a behind the scenes tour today of the wildlife at Busch Gardens here in Florida.  All of their animals are so beautiful and well cared for — though, as nice as their enclosures may be, I do wish these animals didn’t have to be in captivity and were roaming free as nature intended. We were up early this morning as well to do some research of some of Florida’s resident wildlife.  I was just asked to paint some specific species from this area, so I am focusing my studies for that request at the moment.

It can be quite exhausting to be out in the field all day for study and research.  Thankfully, tonight I was able to get a little painting time in at the hotel room.  I just started work on a miniature cat piece - it will be posted (in it’s color version) online once I get a little more time in on it.  I would love to be able to take a ‘traditional’ Florida vacation and relax completely, but I can never seem to peel myself away from my work.  Painting is a just part of me. 

I spent the day surrounded by wildcats — simply breathtaking. :)  We are working with Big Cat Rescue, gathering reference for new work through numerous hours of study.  We have some fund raising work scheduled for the near future - I will be sure to post about that when plans are fully developed.  Thanks so much to the keepers at Big Cat Rescue for their help!!

The organization is the largest in the world, and they are filled to capacity with rescued felines.  I find it disturbing that a furrier would (and does) sacrifice twenty cats for a small patch of white belly fur to make one fur coat.  One.  Or how someone would think that an African lion would make a nice household pet.  These are things that the Big Cat Rescue is working to change through their education programs.  It is a very worthy cause and deserves support.

A number of our galleries have been doing quite well lately.  I just received notice that one of my galleries has sold out of my artwork (so I have some work to do ).  It is a good thing we have scheduled this research outing for new study. I always feel refreshed after closely observing wildlife to paint.  The magical excitement of being so near to such magnificent creatures is exactly what I try to communicate in my work.  It is a pleasure just to blog about it - though all the more eager to get going!! 

I started work on a few new paintings today.  I will post images of them when they progress far enough. 

My print signing sessions have begun.  I put a bit of time in autographing today at Maximum Graphics for the Ducks Unlimited Sponsor Print (only 4,500 more prints left to go!! ).

I’ve started a few new painting in the past couple of days.  The new pieces are a little smaller than the paintings I have been working on lately.  I will get some images of them online soon for everyone to see.

I visited the printer today to approve the final proof for the Ducks Unlimited Sponsor Print.  I think it looks very nice - the colors reproduced well.

It is really exciting to see the finished (or near finished) product of your artwork being made like this.  I am so happy to be able to do my part to help Ducks Unlimited the wildlife and wild places that mean so much to me .

This is my iniatal sketch I used for the white tiger painting I’m working on at the moment.   It is a rendering of one of the White Tigers we studied in Cincinatti during the NFL’s filming of them for television commercials.  The painting is now in it’s color phase of painting.

Here is an updated picture of the progress of my precast moose bronze.  I have been adding a bit of habitat and texture to the piece.

As I posted earlier, my family and I represented traditional miniature artwork for the annual exhibition "Objects of Desire" at The Miller Gallery in Cincinnati over the Holidays. 

I am pleased to post, the gallery has requested further representation and now carries a selection of our traditional sized miniature paintings.  Please stop in if you happen to be in the Cincinnati area.  The gallery is located in the beautiful Hyde Park Square - home to many unique shops and restaruants.

I never posted the final image of my Canadian Goose painting, so here is the completed piece.  The painting is now in the process of being printed in lithograph.  I will add updates about that a bit later .

I have been painting on both my large (24×36) white tiger painting as well as my rabbit piece today.

I am working on a painting that has been sitting in my studio for a while - my rabbit painting.  I haven’t posted an image of the image of the piece here in my blog, but I believe it is listed in my online studio’s "Work in progress" section.  I will be posting a new image of the painting (here in the blog) in the next few days of so.  The painting is not for sale as it has been purchased in it’s in-progress state by one of my online visitors browsing the website.