Seeing is Believing! |
What do you do when you decide to be a poor country folk artist, with little money and still feel very creative? You'd use your resources. Richard Carpenter did just that. Wishing to design bears he searched for a medium but could not come up with something suitable. While he was cleaning the yard one day, he noticed pine cones and thought, "These might do, but then he knew that they open and close in temperature changes." The idea of using pine cones was scrapped. He continued with his yard work when beneath his rake, pine needles clumped together. Picking the needles out of the rake's tines he said to himself, "BEAR HAIR!" And so it began for Richard. Countless hours of needle sorting, he discovered his talent and has painstakingly created near life sized bears. "It takes me three months to weave a small bear and over eight months for a large bear," he explained. The large bears weigh any where from 40 to 60 pounds and are quite sturdy when layers of a polyurethane satin finish is applied to preserve the pine needles. |
Richard Carpenter with his pine needle bear which sits in a 4' x 6' case. |
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Pine needle bear on the Salmon River near his home. |
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Bear called "Mountain Magic ~ A New Life" |
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Bear with Carved Fish |
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| "White Heart".... A life size, 6 foot tall Black Bear standing behind "Little Bear Innocence" the cub. |
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Close up view of the pine needle weaving in "Little Bear Innocence" |
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"Buster the Bear" |
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BooBoo the Bear waits for a big hug! |
Richard is a very personable and talented man. We think his work should be seen. If you agree, send this page link to all your friends. I know the artist would love to hear from you, just to know where his art is being seen around the world. He receives hundreds of emails each day so it's quite understandable when he is unable to answer each one. You can write Richard Carpenter at www.whereartmeetstheheart.com/richardcarpenter.shtml |
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