The Shell Game

The inspiration for this painting came by watching a young pup approaching a turtle, one of many that live at our lake in France. The pup tried to touch the turtle and wanted to play with that strange moving toy. Watching this scene, my imagination went to work. Since the ancestor of all dogs is the wolf, it wasn’t difficult to imagine a few young wolves doing what this pup was doing. (A great subject for somebody who loves to paint wolves).

I looked in my guide of American turtles and found one quite similar to the European one: the Western Pond turtle, which fortunately has more color and patterns on the head and legs. (More enjoyable to paint).

The middle wolf pup hesitates to touch that strange passing thing, while the others are watching. The backlight gives the painting a special atmosphere. The tree in the middle is one important element for the balance in the painting (composition and contrast.) I played with the light to give the feeling of depth. I also wanted to portray the different characters of the pups as two were timid and curious, the other daring.