Oil on Paper by Geoffrey C. Smith, 2024
36"w x 24"h
 
This piece is about repetition, memory, and the raw power of color. Three bears walk in near-identical stride, each set against a bold field of primaries - blue, red, and yellow - but nothing about it is quiet. The largest bear dominates the right side: a cobalt blue form on a yellow sky, walking across a brand of deep red ground. It's almost architectural in its structure - divided, deliberate, and humming with energy.
 
To the left, two smaller bears echo that same motion. At the top: a yellow bear against red, grounded on blue. Below it: a red bear on a blue sky, walking across a field of yellow. These aren't portraits of bears in place - they're elemental forms. A study in how a single figure, repeated and reframed, can shift in meaning just by the palette beneath its feet.
 
The composition feels part mural, part icon, part memory. It's not real light or real terrain—it's presence, rhythm, movement. Each bear holds weight. Each frame holds contrast. And the whole thing balances on tension: familiar, but off-kilter. Grounded, but unsettled. Just like the wild.
 
Featured in World on Fire, Solo Exhibit 2025