Original Photo for Julian Deer Painting

I took this picture of some Julian deer one afternoon while driving through the mountains with my boys. We had trekked out to the hills to catch a glimpse of the wildfire their dad was fighting in the back country. Our adventures took us out on some of the lesser traveled routes heading down into the desert. We ended up on a dead end road in the middle of apple country where we caught these beautiful little thieves in action. They seemed totally unfazed by our presence. I snapped a few shots as they stared us down and saved the images to my hard drive for future reference.

We remodeled our home years ago, but I have been very slow to fill it with decor. I decided we needed a new wall piece for our dining room and settled on turning this image into a rustic painting using oil paints and pallet wood. My husband helped me scavenge a used pallet from our local grocery store and ripped it apart for me. Those pallets are a lot harder to disassemble than I ever imagined. Once he had it apart, I cut the pieces down, sanded them, and reassembled them into a custom canvas for my image. I primed the wood with a clear sealant to keep the painting from bleeding into the soft wood.

Julian Deer Painting on my dining room wall

I started this project in November of 2015 and finished it in May of 2016. Now it’s hanging beautifully on my wall.

WHAT I LOVED: The pallet wood seemed to have life of it’s own. Even though it was  well weather worn when I rescued it the individual pieces of wood still warped, shifted, expanded and contracted with each change in the weather. All of these contortions have added character and life to the image.

WHAT WAS A CHALLENGE: Dealing with the cracks and crevices. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to let the gaps show, or if I should “paint” them in. I changed my mind several times and that is why I love oil paints–the drying time gives you so much flexibility and freedom to experiment. Trying to depict the grass was also a challenge as I wanted to use the beauty of the wood to help in that process. It was difficult to decide how much or how little to let shine through.