{"id":16418,"date":"2025-02-03T08:24:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T13:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=16418"},"modified":"2025-01-31T13:52:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T18:52:58","slug":"following-the-footsteps-of-the-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2025\/02\/03\/following-the-footsteps-of-the-wild\/","title":{"rendered":"Following the Footsteps of the Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you spend enough time observing wild animals, you might start to wonder: Are you following them, or are they following you? This is precisely the question that fine oil painter Linda Besse \u201981 explores in Tracking<\/em>, a portrayal of an interaction between a leopard prowling the African plains and a human observer.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Tracking,
Tracking<\/em>, oil on canvas, by Linda Besse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Besse, who encountered the subject firsthand, was inspired after seeing it during an African safari. Captivated by a ripple of tire tracks beneath the leopard\u2019s paws, she snapped a photo to reference in the painting. \u201cIn the final product, I added some footprints to visualize the interplay between tracking an animal and, maybe at the same time, being tracked by them,\u201d she says. Using a wet-on-wet paint technique, Besse blended the lifelike rendering of spotted fur amidst a field of golden grasses, positioning the animal moving toward the viewer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besse attributes her skill for rendering accurate portrayals of nature scenes, in part, to her time researching geology at Colgate. \u201cStudying geology develops a keen observational eye,\u201d she says: \u201cMountains have structure, rivers change the landscape, and plains can be remnants of a particular sedimentary layer. All of that comes into account for a painting depicting the natural world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until a later trip to Hawaii with her husband that she, without formal lessons, \u201cjust went for it,\u201d beginning to paint in her free time. \u201cOn that trip, I saw someone painting outside, and I thought it looked like fun,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I went home, bought the art supplies, and started painting.\u201d Today, she lives outside of Spokane, Wash., where she is surrounded by muses \u2014 deer, coyotes, and wild turkeys \u2014 right in her backyard. Her portrayals of wildlife have merited several awards, including honors from the American Academy of Equine Artists and Oil Painters of America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fine oil painter Linda Besse \u201981 creates lifelike portrayals of wildlife.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":16758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[2562,1165,2052,2558,86,2561,2563,2559],"coauthors":[1451],"class_list":["post-16418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-spotlights","category-alumni-updates","tag-african-safari","tag-colgate-university","tag-fine-art","tag-linda-besse","tag-nature","tag-oil-painting","tag-tracking","tag-wildlife-art"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-4gO","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/02\/mag-spotlight-hero-footsteps-v2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16418"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16798,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16418\/revisions\/16798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16418"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=16418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}