“Young black bears exemplify play in every way, and I decided to create a painting based on them. When I learned in my reference books that both cinnamon and black bear cubs can occur in the same litter, all the elements were there to do this painting. Observation in the wild was not completely at the source of this painting; it was also imagination, coupled with a particular empathy for this most American of all bears, whose scientific name is Ursus americanus.”

One of the world’s most accomplished nature painters, Belgian artist Carl Brenders in no way neglects the natural settings in which animals and birds live. Meticulously realistic, brilliantly observed and exquisitely composed, Brender’s paintings are nearly impossible to discern from a photograph.

"Why do I paint like a maniac, so realistically? I sometimes ask this question when I think about the paintings of Carl Rungius, Robert Kuhn, Richard Friese or Wilhelm Kuhnert, wildlife artists whose work has a loose, impressionistic style. But whether it is impressionistic or realistic painting, in the end it is the vision of the individual that matters. For me it is not crazy to paint all those little rocks and fallen pine needles, because the vibration of their textures makes an aesthetic whole of the animal, the plant life, and the landscape in the painting."