Creating Portrait of a Garden Guest
The Idea
As I continued developing this collection, I felt drawn to the idea of creating a piece that embodied gentleness, something soft, intimate, and rooted in quiet observation. Rabbits have always reminded me of stillness and curiosity, and the idea of capturing one nestled within delicate blooms felt like the perfect way to expand the world I was building.
This piece came at a time when I was beginning to feel more grounded in my artistic direction. After taking the time to reset, I approached this painting with openness rather than pressure. I wasn’t trying to force a style anymore, I was letting it unfold naturally.
The rabbit felt like a visitor a shy guest wandering through a secluded garden. I wanted viewers to feel as though they were catching a glimpse of a hidden moment, a gentle presence tucked between petals and warm light.
In many ways, Portrait of a Garden Guest represents comfort, the softness that follows a beginning. It reminded me that storytelling doesn’t always need to be elaborate or symbolic. Sometimes the tender, quiet moments speak the loudest.
The Process
Like my other pieces, this painting began with gathering references, studying the texture of fur, the tilt of rabbit ears. I pulled together multiple photos until I found the atmosphere I wanted to create. From there, I built a digital composite that served as a loose guide for overall shape and proportion rather than a strict roadmap. I wanted to challenge myself with this piece, especially when it came to color composition and lighting, allowing those elements to develop more intuitively as the painting progressed instead of simply trying to “recreate”.
Once the composition felt right, I transferred the sketch onto the oval panel using a projector. By this point, I had found a comfortable rhythm with my process. Just enough structure to feel steady, enough flexibility to stay intuitive. I began with broad washes of color to establish the overall mood. Working loosely at the start allowed me to build that depth behind the rabbit and florals.
The rabbit came together with surprising ease. After years of searching for a style that felt true, this piece flowed in a way I hadn’t experienced before. I focused on capturing a gentle expression, alert yet peaceful, using subtle variations in color and value to give the fur depth without being overly sharp. My goal was emotional realism, not strict photographic detail. The florals required patience, but they helped me develop the softness I wanted this series to have. I studied how petals catch the light, and how they could frame the rabbit without overpowering it.
As with the rest of the collection, I added subtle aging effects soft warmth around the edges, a slight tonal fade, and that gentle vintage glow. The ornate frame tied everything together, blending the painterly realism I love with the surreal, time-worn aesthetic that gives these pieces their quiet magic.
