Bear Art: Beauty And The Beast

Here you'll find Bear Art -- sculptures, photography, paintings, drawings, carvings -- all of Bears in all their glory. Also tips on naming sculptures, using photos as inspirations, and much more.

I love bears. I devote so much time and energy into bears (online and off-line) that I've been given the nickname, Bearmeister. :o)

There's just something about these wild and magnificent beasts that grabs the imagination. They're fierce, curious and the sows are wonderful mothers (I'm not so sure about the absentee fathers, however - LOL)

I find all 8 species of bears fascinating. And, they make a wonderful subjects for art. As a sculptor, I love to create bears. So far, I've created polar bears and grizzlies. But I'm expanding my art to include the other 8 species of bear. My next bears to sculpt are Sloth Bears, the Dancing Bears of India. I've been doing my research, now it's time to sculpt!

I hope you find bears and their cubs as captivating as I do. I'll personally pick the bear art that moves me. I'll start with polar bears and add other bear art every week so come back to see more un-BEAR-ably wonderful bear art. Also, please let me know if you or someone else create bear art that I should add to this lens.

My Blog has been HACKED and is down temporarily so some photos are not loading on this site.

Artist: Frankie Kangas

"Nanuk, Lord of the Ice"

This is one of my one-of-a kind ceramic sculptures who breaks free and comes to life in this morph. The live polar bear picture was what I used for my model. It and a few others so I could get other angles of the bear. As you can see, I don't do life-like sculptures but more stylized. For more pictures of this sculpture or others, visit Sculptures by Frankie (www.sculpturesbyfrankie.com)

Artist: Frankie Kangas

I love to sculpt bear with cubs. Call it maternal instinct, whatever, I just know it touches me deeply whenever I see any animal with their cubs. Below are some of my sculptures of Polar Bear Moms with cubs.

"BEARing Three"

"BEARly Hanging On"

"BEARing Up Baby"

Naming art work can be challenging but also fun, especially when it comes to animals. Take, bears for instance. I've been having a blast coming up with names.

Sometimes I have that I "create for" and sometimes I don't and so I name them afterwards. For bears, I can create words that have bear in them but maybe spelled differently. For instance, BEAR-ly or BEAR-ing.

Another example is Wildlife S.O.S., rescues the Dancing Bears in India, and has on their website the slogan, "Lib-BEAR-ate the Dancing Bears". Fun AND memorable.

Try your hand at creating some in the next module.

I use photos a lot for inspiration. Sometimes I use several for 1 sculpture using ideas from each. I'm not necessarily trying to duplicate the photo(s), but the feel and maybe the stance or attitude of the object (usually an animal for me). Since my work is stylized, they never look like the picture I'm working from anyway so there's no copyright infringement problems. LOL

I used this photo of the brown bear sitting to create a sculpture of a polar bear holding his toes. I love this photo. Can't you just see his playfulness; his attitude?

Linda Hiller is an artist who works in pastels and oils. She doesn't focus only on animals, but she does an amazing job on the ones she has created. Below are my 2 favorites: In Search of Ice and Where have all the Pandas gone? You can see more of her work at Linda Hiller Fine Art

Linda is also a lensmaster. You can see her list of lenses at lhiller

Below is "Papa said no, no, no" by Alvin Amason, an Alutiq (Sugpiaq) artist from Old Harbor, Kodiak Island.

Cibachrome print of a polar bear embryo by award winning international photographers, Daniel & Geo Fuchs. To see it and more of their fabulous work, click The Bulger Gallery.

By the way, how many embryos do you count?

Check out these wonderful bear sculptures and carvings.

There are 8 species of bear world-wide. All are endangered to one degree or another. In case you don't know them all, the 8 bear species are: American Black Bear, Asiatic Black Bear, Brown Bear, Giant Panda, Polar Bear, Spectacled Bear, Sloth Bear and Sun Bear.

For more photos and facts about the 8 bear species, click BEARS: The 8 Wonders of the World

Member of Save Our Bears Group -- a group of lenses devoted to help change the plight all of the 8 bear species through awareness and fund raising.

The lenses show the wonderful nature of bears and many will, at the same time, shine a spotlight on the dangers bears face including: trophy hunters, gall bladder and bile farming, pollution, bear baiting, global warming, and habitat destruction.

You'll also find fun lenses on great polar bear movies, books, teddy bears, even cartoon and toy bears.

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