There is everything graceful about a moose, and there is nothing graceful about a moose, and that's exactly why I find them so compelling. They are formidable, improbable, and utterly themselves.

When I lived in north Idaho, they were around many corners as I worked in the mountains, mapping caribou and grizzly bear habitat. In Alaska, I was gifted with the sight of an albino: a pale apparition in a vast green landscape.

I don't paint moose often enough. I plan to rectify that.

Alces Borealis Forma was built slowly. It started with a grisaille, in the tradition of French masters, then I shifted that to a brunaille, then applied many layers of transparent glazes over time. A photograph can only suggest what this painting actually is. The glazes respond differently to different light, and the color shifts with it.

Alces Borealis Forma has its own identity, seen only in person.