#75 In the Studio: Under the Bob Kuhn spell cont'd. . .

We saw a moose in the distance a few days ago. The weather took a turn for the worse overnight so this morning I started a block-in study of a bull moose.


I remember a discussion with Bob Kuhn about recognizing an animal the way bird watchers do in the field: by shape.  The animal I saw in the distance was unmistakably a moose:  not a deer, not a bear - but a moose.  I didn't need to see detail or get out binoculars to recognize the critter - just the basic, overall shape shouted moose!

Modeling from Kuhn's moose painting,

Return of Autumn

  Kuhn's drawing ability was so spot
  on and so beautifully understood;
  the structured shapes and
  silhouette so accurate, that a
  sculptor with a basic knowledge
  of quadruped anatomy and a
  magazine clipping of one of his
  moose paintings can muster the
  courage to model after the master.

  North-wind howling, birch fire
  roaring:  I know I'm under the spell
  of my subject when it's noon and
  I'm at the sculpture stand and still
  in my bathrobe.

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