"Elk and Calf"

oil on canvas board

12x16

sold

I just finished this painting of an elk and her calf.  I had taken tha photo in the Rocky Mountain National Park a few years ago, but I didn't like the background in the photo.  So I looked through my photos to find a good background and found this scene taken in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.  Since there are elk in the refuge, I combined the two photos.  We don't very often see elk in the refuge and if we do glimpse them it is usually in the evening or morning when it's hard to get good photos.  I've only seen calves this size in the refuge one time and they were too far away to get a good photo.  We are going back to the Rocky Mountain National Park this summer so I'm hoping to take more photos of elk.