Love, Loss, and Remembering

I drew and painted a lot of whitetail deer art during the 1980s. Even when I became a college art student, much to the vexation of one of my professors who was stuck in Abstract Expressionism Art mode.

I loved watching deer outside my windows, and I became a student of capturing every aspect of them, whether in pencils, paints, or photographs. I filled my sketchbooks, watercolor blocks, canvases, and rolls of film with them, and even dreamed about them in my sleep. I gave away many of my drawings and paintings and saw most of them framed and hanging on walls when I visited family and friends.

My youngest brother Mike moved back from Wyoming last year and wound up living a few blocks away from me. When I visited, I saw some of my old deer art on his walls. He expressed how much he loved looking at that old art. Which made me proud but also saddened me that I no longer draw and paint as much as I used to.

We talked about fishing together this summer, and I considered making some fish and creek art with watercolors when the fish weren’t biting. That was the last time I saw him alive.

On April 11, I found him dead in his apartment, sitting in his lounge chair in front of the TV. He’d been suffering from asthma and emphysema and just had his gall bladder removed a week before, so I’d been running errands for him while he recovered.

While the paramedics and coroner checked on him, I removed the art from his walls. Family came and removed the rest of his belongings, and we mourned and reminisced and celebrated the life of a good man.

Below are two of my brother’s favorite paintings that his big brother Steve painted during those student years.

The first is a 1985 watercolor done in gouache on cold-pressed paper. I enjoy the looseness and transparency of gouache’s watercolor properties along with its opaqueness in the deer and foreground trees. I don’t recall if I titled this painting, but I’m calling it “Early Winter Bucks” for this post.

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The second painting is a 1987 acrylic on canvas, which I titled “Majestic River Buck” all those years ago. Now, I simply call it “Majestic.” It depicts the time I saw a buck slam its hoof on the ground to warn other deer of potential danger. It happened during hunting season, so there was a good reason for its alarm (though I was shooting with a camera, not with a bow or rifle).

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Thanks for joining me at this look at my past.

Peace and love to all.

Steve, 4/28/2025

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This post “Love, Loss, and Remembering” copyright © 2025 Steven Leo Campbell at stevecampbellcreations.com – All rights reserved.

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