A02: Tender Love

Oil on Cavas 
24" x 36" 

When I paint, I often choose music that reflects the feeling I want to create on canvas. 

For this piece, I probably listened to cellist Anne Gastinel playing Schubert's Am Tage aller Seelen, D. 343 over 100 times while working on this painting and thinking about their tough life and the ultimate devotion of the penguin parents.

Many times I was painting them in tears...feeling how the warmth of the cello sound perfectly resonates with the loving connection between this penguin parent and chick.

I intentionally emphasized the posture of these two into a harmonious shape, one towers over the other, shadows, textures, and colors to express the tender love between them.

As the young chick leans over the parent's puffy belly pleading for food, the parent stands stately, like a mountain, with bowed head to provide comfort.