It’s been exactly 2 years since my last blog post. I honestly haven’t done too much art in the meantime.
This is a commission I did for a friend, finished earlier today. She requested a painting of a character from Korean myth named Ungnyeo (Sino-Korean for “bear woman”); she is planning to give it as a Christmas gift.
God’s Bear III - Ungnyeo (Mixed media on 9x12 Fluid 100 watercolor block, hot press 140lbs.)
From the Wikipedias:
“In the tale, a tiger and a bear (Ungnyeo) lived together in a cave and prayed to the divine king Hwanung to be made human. Hwanung heard their prayers and gave them 20 cloves of garlic, a bundle of mugwort and ordered them to stay out of the sunlight and eat only this food for 100 days. Due to hunger, the tiger left the cave after roughly 20 days, but the bear remained inside. After 21 days, she was transformed into a woman.
Ungnyeo was grateful and made offerings to Hwanung. Her lack of a husband drove her to depression, and she began to pray beneath a sacred betula tree (신단수 / 神檀樹) to be blessed with a child. Hwanung heard her prayers and was deeply moved. He took Ungnyeo as his wife and soon after, she gave birth to a son, Dangun, who would go on to found the nation of Korea.”
It was a fascinating project and I knew pretty much immediately how I wanted to do it. I went with the iconography style I’ve used in the past, and added specific elements relating to the story: garlic, mugwort, and birch trees. I depicted Ungnyeo as an Asiatic black bear (also known as a “moon bear” for the white patch on the chest) which is native to the Korean peninsula. I included the full moon as an allusion to the bear’s name and it’s connection to sacred feminine power.
I like how the bear turned out, particularly the eyes. Bears can have such intense, complex emotion in their eyes, but until now I’d never been quite satisfied with my attempts to capture it. The garlic braid was also a neat little solution to a tricky part of the composition. The mugwort is a bundle of non-descript greenery, which was frustrating (I need more practice with plants).