Large Bear

Item Description

ABOUT THE BEAR:

“My idea for Ursa Great Spirit combines the influences of my love for landscape painting and my respect and awe of the art of Emily Carr the Canadian painter from Victoria, BC. I have been twice to Victoria and Vancouver to paint on location and see the Museums that collect her work and see her as a National Treasure. In her writings and work she was influenced by the Pacific Northwest Indians. I wanted to incorporate the Indian folklore legend of the bear running thru the woods to escape the hunter and leaping into the sky toward the moon to form the Big Dipper, Ursa Major. In my own paintings on canvas/paper I do a lot of nocturnal scenes so painting daylight on the bear working its way up to the deep starry night sky made sense to me. I wanted my black/white folklore bear to be quite graphic and large on the backside of the physical bear reaching for the moon. The big dipper is around the eye of the bear and has tiny leaded crystals in the seven stars to capture the light. The painted sun on the front is also a stylized sunburst painted similar to the Inuit Indians.” – Marcia Reed

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Marcia Reed has been an Easthampton resident since 1981. In 1996 she moved into the Railroad Station on the bike trail. It is here where she paints in her studio and operates her Gallery called 1 Railroad Street.  Marcia works primarily in oils and watercolors and is a landscape painter. Her work is represented in galleries throughout New England, The Virgin Islands, and in numerous private collections. Marcia is an instructor at The Williston Northampton School teaching painting and design for thirty-one years. Marcia also instructs summer adult painting workshops in Italy, and teaches summers at Maine College of Art in Portland, ME and Elder Hostel at Snow Farm in Williamsburg.  Her work can be seen at: www.marciareedpainting.com

Item Special Note

This bear is a large bear.  The measurements are as follows:

Height:  54" from tip of feet to top of ears, 44" from base (where the bottom sits on base) to ears.

Width: circumference - approximately 92" around at the widest point (around the paws and back).  Footprint width is 21" and depth is 31".

Weight:  This bear weighs approximately 45 lbs.

Other useful information: The bear will come with the log that it was displayed on in the exhibit, and will include the plaque on the log. 

The bear is coated with a UV protective clear coat so that the paint will not fade with exposure to the sun.