Just as eagles are my favorite birds, my favorite mammal is the red fox. I've always been fascinated with these beautiful and cunning wild dogs, but it wasn't until I began working with Elise Able at Foxwood Wildlife Rescue in 1996 that I began to explore my interest in them. The years I volunteered at Foxwood were a lot of fun, and allowed me the chance to photograph many foxes, and for a long time, that was all I painted. I learned a great deal about foxes in that time. However, my priorities greatly changed in 2002, and I decided I needed to spend more time with my own animals and family. When I went back to painting in 2003, I wanted to shift my focus back to my original true love, birds of prey (you could say I was "foxed out"). This page features a few of my fox paintings from 1996 - 2001. (For more information on Foxwood Wildlife Rescue, visit www.foxwoodrehab.com ). I did start to volunteer at Foxwood again, on a part time basis, as of late summer 2009. Also, in early 2009, I took a temporary diversion from birds of prey and painted a new series of fox paintings. Images of these are viewable on the page titled "More Foxes". I decided that I will occasionally paint foxes again, whenever I need a break from birds of prey paintings.
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Mickey
Original 12" x 16", canvas board, completed 6/6/96. My first fox painting! After being allowed to work so closely with Elise's foxes and take so many photos of them, I decided it was time to paint one. Mickey is a silver fox that was rescued from an abusive owner, but he mellowed right out once at Foxwood, with Elise's gentle care. This painting is hanging up at Foxwood Wildlife Rescue.
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Lassie
Original 12" x 16", canvas board, completed 10/17/96. Lassie is an arctic fox who was sold as a pet in Florida, but later surrendered to Foxwood. This was my second fox painting, which I began immediately after my painting of Mickey, but I ran into a few problems with it, due to the quality photograph I was working from. I ended up putting this on the back burner in September 1996 and made my painting of Itchy in the meantime. I then came back to this one, and combined elements from another photograph I took of Lassie, and finally finished the painting. This one, like the painting of Mickey, is hanging up at Foxwood Wildlife Rescue.
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Itchy
Original: 11" x 14" canvas board, completed 9/26/96. Itchy was a beautiful wild red fox at Foxwood, who was unreleasable to the wild because she lost part of her front foot in a steel jaw trap (she also had mange when she first arrived, which is where she got her name). I was able to get some nice photos of her and based this painting off one of them. My Erie County Fair entry for 1997, it didn't win anything.
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Ruby - Profile
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 5/15/97. Ruby was a silver fox Elise had for educational purposes. She was the first fox I ever made a real connection to, and she was walkable on a leash, so I looked forward to walking her whenever I volunteered.
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Ruby - Sitting
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 7/3/97. My second painting of Ruby and my Erie County Fair entry for 1998, but it didn't win anything.
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Heather - Face Closeup
Original: 8" x 10" canvas board, completed 3/25/99. Heather is a cross blend fox (red foxes can come in 3 different color phases, within the same litter - red, silver, or cross blend) and was one of my favorite foxes to visit with, because I loved her colors. She wasn't very tame, but I was able to get some great photos of her, because she was curious enough about me to come within a few inches. This was my second painting of her (my first painting of her turned out poorly, and I've chosen not to post an image of it). This won second prize at the 1999 Erie County Fair.
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Heather - Looking Right
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 8/31/00. My third painting of Heather, making her the Foxwood fox I did the most paintings of.
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Aurora - Looking Forward
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 11/18/99. This was my first painting of Aurora, who is a very friendly captive bred female red fox.
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Aurora - Standing
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 12/23/99. My second painting of Aurora, and it won honorable mention at the 2000 Erie County Fair.
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Three Red Fox Pups
Original: 16" x 20" canvas board, completed 2/11/99. Based on a photo I took of some abandoned red fox pups being raised at Foxwood with the hope of eventual release back to the wild. This painting is on permanent display at the summer home of former Buffalo Bills physical trainer Rusty Jones.
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Red Fox on a Box
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 8/27/98. Based on a photo from the same batch as the one I based "Three Red Fox Pups" on, this one focuses on just one of the fox pups, lying on a wooden box inside the kennel.
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Red Fox - "Coming Out of the Shadows" & Red Fox Miniatures
Original 12" x 16", canvas board, completed 9/17/98. Based on a photo of fox pups from the same batch as "Red Fox on a Box" and "Three Red Fox Pups", this was originally intended to have several fox pups in it, but due to the poor nature of the original photo, only the one in the middle ended up looking decent. So, I almost scrapped this painting. However, I was so happy with how the fox in the middle turned out, I decided to just paint over the rest of the painting, and have this lone fox face be the central point. It ended up turning out pretty cool.Originals 5" x 7", canvas board, completed, respectively, 2/20/97 and 8/21/97. As I said of "Coming Out of the Shadows", I was really happy with how the fox face in the middle turned out, and I tried to duplicate it in a miniature (the one on the right), but it just didn't look as good to me, which is why I decided to salvage the original after all. The horizontal one (the one on the left) is based on a photo of Itchy.
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Vicki - Lying Down
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 2/10/00. My first painting of Vicki, who was an arctic marble fox, at Foxwood. Not to be confused with the arctic fox, arctic marbles are actually the same species as red foxes, but their color was genetically bred by fur breeders, and you will not find foxes this color in the wild.
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Vicki - Standing
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 2/1/01. My second painting of Vicki (and, in my opinion, much better than the first), and the last fox painting I did until May 2009.
Original 12" x 16", canvas board, completed 6/6/96. My first fox painting! After being allowed to work so closely with Elise's foxes and take so many photos of them, I decided it was time to paint one. Mickey is a silver fox that was rescued from an abusive owner, but he mellowed right out once at Foxwood, with Elise's gentle care. This painting is hanging up at Foxwood Wildlife Rescue. 
Original 12" x 16", canvas board, completed 10/17/96. Lassie is an arctic fox who was sold as a pet in Florida, but later surrendered to Foxwood. This was my second fox painting, which I began immediately after my painting of Mickey, but I ran into a few problems with it, due to the quality photograph I was working from. I ended up putting this on the back burner in September 1996 and made my painting of Itchy in the meantime. I then came back to this one, and combined elements from another photograph I took of Lassie, and finally finished the painting. This one, like the painting of Mickey, is hanging up at Foxwood Wildlife Rescue. 
Original: 11" x 14" canvas board, completed 9/26/96. Itchy was a beautiful wild red fox at Foxwood, who was unreleasable to the wild because she lost part of her front foot in a steel jaw trap (she also had mange when she first arrived, which is where she got her name). I was able to get some nice photos of her and based this painting off one of them. My Erie County Fair entry for 1997, it didn't win anything. 
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 5/15/97. Ruby was a silver fox Elise had for educational purposes. She was the first fox I ever made a real connection to, and she was walkable on a leash, so I looked forward to walking her whenever I volunteered.
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 7/3/97. My second painting of Ruby and my Erie County Fair entry for 1998, but it didn't win anything. 
Original: 8" x 10" canvas board, completed 3/25/99. Heather is a cross blend fox (red foxes can come in 3 different color phases, within the same litter - red, silver, or cross blend) and was one of my favorite foxes to visit with, because I loved her colors. She wasn't very tame, but I was able to get some great photos of her, because she was curious enough about me to come within a few inches. This was my second painting of her (my first painting of her turned out poorly, and I've chosen not to post an image of it). This won second prize at the 1999 Erie County Fair.
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 8/31/00. My third painting of Heather, making her the Foxwood fox I did the most paintings of.
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 11/18/99. This was my first painting of Aurora, who is a very friendly captive bred female red fox.
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 12/23/99. My second painting of Aurora, and it won honorable mention at the 2000 Erie County Fair.
Original: 16" x 20" canvas board, completed 2/11/99. Based on a photo I took of some abandoned red fox pups being raised at Foxwood with the hope of eventual release back to the wild. This painting is on permanent display at the summer home of former Buffalo Bills physical trainer Rusty Jones.
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 8/27/98. Based on a photo from the same batch as the one I based "Three Red Fox Pups" on, this one focuses on just one of the fox pups, lying on a wooden box inside the kennel. 
Original 12" x 16", canvas board, completed 9/17/98. Based on a photo of fox pups from the same batch as "Red Fox on a Box" and "Three Red Fox Pups", this was originally intended to have several fox pups in it, but due to the poor nature of the original photo, only the one in the middle ended up looking decent. So, I almost scrapped this painting. However, I was so happy with how the fox in the middle turned out, I decided to just paint over the rest of the painting, and have this lone fox face be the central point. It ended up turning out pretty cool.
Originals 5" x 7", canvas board, completed, respectively, 2/20/97 and 8/21/97. As I said of "Coming Out of the Shadows", I was really happy with how the fox face in the middle turned out, and I tried to duplicate it in a miniature (the one on the right), but it just didn't look as good to me, which is why I decided to salvage the original after all. The horizontal one (the one on the left) is based on a photo of Itchy. 
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 2/10/00. My first painting of Vicki, who was an arctic marble fox, at Foxwood. Not to be confused with the arctic fox, arctic marbles are actually the same species as red foxes, but their color was genetically bred by fur breeders, and you will not find foxes this color in the wild.
Original: 12" x 16" canvas board, completed 2/1/01. My second painting of Vicki (and, in my opinion, much better than the first), and the last fox painting I did until May 2009.