96" x 79" Acrylic on Canvas Artist Shannon Ford "This painting became an expression of how we are all connected, through energy, through the air we breath, the water we drink, through the earth we call home, and through our hearts. I often feel like the mysteries of the universe are just out of reach, and when I am painting sometimes I feel like I start to touch it… this painting offers one of those moments"

79" x 79" Acrylic on Canvas Artist Shannon Ford "This bear is certainly on a mission, and I am keeping him in the dark, it could be at night, or maybe he represents a dark night of the soul. I love that this fellow is so focussed, head down and moving forward. I used Diamond dust on this painting and it glints even in low light. Diamond Dust is the precious element here, adding light sparkles to the painting that may surprise the senses."

60" x 60" Acrylic on Canvas Artist Shannon Ford For years I have painted this same wolf, this same moment over and over and each time I re-experience the feeling I get when looking into her eyes. With each of the Lup series I wonder, what will be expressed on the canvas this time. Lup incorporates Diamond Dust and the Light Verdigris colour is actually bronze patina, which for me nods to the bronze age, when wolf descendants dogs and humans were evolving societies & creating relationships"

60" x 60" Acrylic on Canvas Artist Shannon Ford "Most of the time I go with the flow and love to see what happens next on the canvas, and I often watch the results with joy, and sometimes with dismay. I think it is an allegory for something deeper… the black and white along with the abstract movements of colour, sometimes over the fur, sometimes under but then I imagined it was ice cream, or ripe fruits, or psychedelic honey… and that saved the colour movements from being defined…"

72" x 72" Acrylic on Canvas Artist Shannon Ford "Bears are intelligent and powerful and they are also humorous, curious and can be very strategic. Living around bears and watching their funny moments was such a gift. This little guy has a lot going on, from the random abstract colour forms on his back to the shower of cubic zirconias,I had so much fun painting this and I wonder what he is thinking! I added a sprinkle of 5* Cubic Zirconias (releasing ego) to this painting."

40" x 48" Acrylic on Canvas Artist Shannon Ford "(Study for larger painting) - and just like in the Beatles song, a family relies on Love. This painting was inspired after I came across a wild mother Grizzly with her three cubs near Castlegar, BC. It is the very first time I have ever seen a Grizzly mother with cubs, and looked into the eyes of a mother Grizzly. The moment that we shared eye contact has stayed with me and continues to inspire me."

Acrylic on Canvas Artist Shannon Ford "This bear has a secret, it is two paintings, there is a stallion painted underneath. I was painting a stallion on this canvas and it was feeling so powerful, (you can actually still see the blue from the horse's blaze on its nose in the lower left of the painting)… and then POW, it became more… and that Power evolved the painting into the courage, heart and power of a Grizzly Bear."

72" x 72" Acrylic on Canvas Artist Shannon Ford This Grizzly appeared on my Canvas and almost painted herself. She made me smile and think about a message I get every time I see a Grizzly Bear, and that is about being in the moment and appreciating things. If you watch a Grizzly catching fish, or walking along sniffing for berries as living wild, they are always looking for opportunities for life. Rubies (purity, passion), Tanzanite (higher consciousness), Sugilite (love) and Turquoise

48" x 48" Acrylic on Canvas Artist Shannon Ford With their time between worlds, living above ground, and then in hibernation sleeping for months in dark caves and dens, Bears have come to represent passing between consciousness and dreams. I imagined this Grizzly and I were sharing a dream moment, celebrated with a more traditional painting style of bear, but with colour tingles around the nose, the ears and the eyes as we look at each other, as if connected in a dream.