Last week, I went up to Innisfail to deliver the first print and sticker order of the season to Discovery Wildlife Park.
I first visited the park in 2016 and after ten years, I now have a personal relationship with the place. Regular readers will know of my experiences with Berkley, a brown bear that holds a very special place in my heart. I’ve painted her more than any other animal and there’s no chance I won’t keep doing so.
The head keeper Serena is now one of Shonna’s and my close friends and she has given us a lot of behind the scenes access to visit with, photograph and learn about the challenges of caring for rescued and orphaned animals that can’t be returned to the wild.
I’ve always had mixed feelings about animals in captivity, and I still do. But over a decade of visiting this place and getting to know the people behind it, I also know the reality is more complicated than a slogan or social media argument.
Many of these animals were orphaned, injured or unable to survive in the wild and would likely have been euthanized if the park hadn’t taken them in. I’ve also seen firsthand how much Serena and her staff care about them, not as attractions, but as animals they’ve invested years of their lives into caring for.
One of my favourite things to do there is attend the bear program. Along with talking about the bears themselves and why each is at the park, Serena and her staff educate visitors on how to behave around wildlife.
They talk about making noise on trails, travelling in groups, carrying bear spray and knowing how to use it. They explain proper food storage while camping, why people should stay in their vehicles if they see a bear on the highway, and why a fed bear is a dead bear.
Having lived more than thirty years in bear country, I can tell you it’s a message that still needs repeating. Too many tourists feel entitled to get that selfie or closeup with a grizzly or black bear without thinking about the consequences. Usually, it’s the bear that pays for it long after the tourists go home.
On this recent visit, Serena took me behind the scenes to visit Berkley so I could hopefully get some new reference for the cover of my upcoming bear book. She still recognizes me from my several visits with her when she was a cub.
Though these days there’s always a fence between us, she still comes right over to say hello. It’s a pleasant surprise, every time.
Because she was so close, I only needed my phone camera and I think I got the shots I needed for the painting I have in mind. Honestly, there’s no other bear I want on the cover of that book. There’s something profoundly special about Berkley that I still can’t quite explain, so I keep trying to find and show it when I paint her.
There are also some very recent and exciting developments with the book that I’ll share soon. It’s no longer a someday project. It’s finally happening.
I also got to photograph the new cubs at the park, and some of the reference I captured last week is among the best I’ve ever shot. Watching them climb and tumble around, I already see several possible paintings in those photos.
As always, my biggest challenge is making time for all of it among deadlines, commissions, editorial cartoons and everything else. I could honestly spend the next year just painting bears.
One aside to this whole experience. I’ve wanted to record more of these trips for YouTube videos, but I’m still trying to find the right balance. I know for a fact that if I’d been worrying about camera settings, microphones and video all day, I would have missed some of my best reference shots, catching up with Serena, and simply being present with these animals.
I do want to incorporate more video into sharing the stories behind my work, but my first priority is still the work itself. I’m an artist who uses video to augment what I do, not a YouTuber chasing likes and shares at the expense of the art and the experiences that inspire it.
I’ve got a few more trips planned over the next couple of weeks to gather reference for upcoming paintings. It would be easy to forego these excursions in favour of more time working at my desk, as catching up is still proving frustrating and impossible. But spring is one of the best times for taking pictures. The animals are active, the light is softer, and there are babies everywhere.
If I fail to make time for that, investing time now for the art I want to make later, I’ve nobody to blame but myself.
Cheers,
Patrick
