A painter is a privileged being, because in his imagination he can come very close to the animals he paints. For the few weeks that I worked on this image, I felt very close to these two wolves, and little by little they became alive. In reality one can never come this close to wild animals, particularly if they are predators. At one time wolves were found everywhere in the northern hemisphere, therefore the background chosen for this painting could easily be found in the northeast U.S. The United States is a wonderful country, but man, the wolf's primary enemy, forced the wolf out of the northeast, as he did in most of the country. So in my image, I tried to reintroduce him there. The color difference found in individual wolves is a wonderful thing and it made an interesting contrast. - CB