Dare frame thy fearful symmetry

As Billy Blake said:
"Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?"

Back about the same time two years ago (In January of 2010) I did another tiger influenced by William Blake's poem (Burning Bright www.flickr.com/photos/22796639@N05/4290825136/).

After painting this one my first thought, as I think of the snow outside, was that perhaps it reflects a yearning for tropical climes.

On the other hand, the only tiger that I've seen, up really close, was a Siberian tiger in the Russian Far East, definitely not a tropical area!

So! I suspect my choice of tiger as a subject to paint this time of year, the mid-winter season, is due more to some resonance with the intensity, vibrancy, tenacity of life that the tiger typifies. As I look at the snow I see trails and tracks telling hundreds of stories both mundane and dramatic, of life triumphant in spite of cold and darkness. The fox, the vole, the rabbit, the moose the lynx,… 'What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?'

Watercolors on Canson's 140 pound cold pressed paper, 9 by 12 inches.