A young bear poised in a moment of alert curiosity, its wide eyes meeting the viewer with a quiet intelligence. Layers of encaustic, watercolor, pencil, and ink create a surface alive with scratches, stains, and delicate fractures, echoing both vulnerability and instinct. Cool blues and soft neutrals dissolve into energetic marks, allowing the figure to hover between emergence and disappearance. The painting feels less like a portrait and more like an encounter, brief, intimate, and charged with the simple question of who is watching whom. 30 x 40 in. Encaustic, fresco, watercolor, pencil, ink on cradled wood panel. Sold.