Those Bunny Feet!

Niya Christine. Copyright

#150/365 Paintings

We’ve seen rabbits in all kinds of postures this month. Bunny butts, backs, nose profiles and then butts again. But what about those feet? Meet baby lop Noel. He has big feet and a super relaxed, squishy face. I think he feels so safe in life that he has no idea he’s a rabbit and instinct runs the other way.

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Project notes: This is the last of the Bunnies & Bicycle’s paintings. Friday is the transition post to Food & Wine and then Saturday, the first painting of the new theme. Whew, what an amazing month. More on that in tomorrow’s post.

D A K O T A

Niya Christine Painting. Copyright

#148/365 Paintings

I had to laugh several times in the process of this painting. First, because I was working from a black and white photo of an unknown rabbit. But when the drawing was done, it was clearly ‘not’ the rabbit in the photo. It was Dakota, my oldest rabbit. His face, absolutely! The second laugh was all that gosh darn color. If Dakota saw this painting I’d get the freeze out move–the long ear over the eye for months. Dakota is super stoic and macho. The pink—the squishy vulnerable posture, the lower lip showing. All these things are highly unacceptable in his world. Still giggling behind his back. If you ever meet him, you never saw this okay?

Polka Dotted Professor Rabbit

Copyright. Painting by Niya Christine

#139/365 Paintings

Meet professor Beardon. He teaches geometry and music theory. His favorite text is “Godel, Escher, Bach… quoted as a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll.”  His students tease him that he grows more dots per year on his coat from geometrical equations—that the inside of those large glasses is coated with music scores. Professor Beardon is often accused of singing with his eyes. Rabbits do have a poetic observation about them. Professor Beardon has that expression I so often see in rabbits… What? did you really think humans had the patent on genius? Silly humans. 

Beatrice Rests on a Florence Rooftop

Copyright Niya Christine. Story Paintings

#136/365 Paintings

If you’re having a hard time finding the rabbit in this painting, that’s good. That’s what Beatrice wants.

B. is looking for a mate. She rides a 2-seater bicycle everyday—one seat for her and one for her true love when she finds him. She rides all day long, looking and hoping. The problem is… a rabbit on a 2 seater bicycle (any bicycle) attracts a lot of attention. She darts through the ally’s and streets in Florence. Sometimes she messes up the homeless’s beds. She feels bad about that. They are one in the same in her mind. Beatrice in Italian means, Voyager. Right now our little voyager is hidden in sight on a bakery rooftop. Zzzzzzzzz…. shhhh, don’t wake the bunny. Especially one working this hard to find her soulmate.

Stalking Bicycles in Amsterdam

Niya Christine. Copyright

#135/365 Paintings

If you’ve ever been to Amsterdam and had a hard time sleeping due to annoying roof activity. That wasn’t a drunk Santa off schedule. It was actually bunnies stalking bicycles. See their curious, peppy little faces? They don’t know whether to race it, jump on it or just watch it all night in admiration and fascination. Bunnies and bicycles have a long standing mutual fascination. They are both fast. When a rabbit is really going, it’s legs look like wheels. If rabbits were bigger, we might not have seen the invention of the bicycle. So, these two phenomenon’s don’t quite know what to do with another. Well, until the bike basket was made, that is. And then we have the farmers market with carrots that fit into bike baskets. But that’s for another painting.

Joe Disapproves

Rabbit Painting by Niya Christine. Copyright

#134/365 Paintings

Somewhere in the universe is a land where bored rabbits risk their lives on bicycles because it’s fun. Because as scared as rabbits are by nature there is an equal proportion of skill to overcome it. While the young rabbits fly on wheels on a dim moonlit night, another rabbit watches from afar. Let’s call him Joe Rabbit. Joe does not approve of this behavior. Joe, in fact, is curious that a rabbit could have any boredom at all. Rabbits, he likes to say are the most fecund creatures on the planet. There is always plenty to do with so many children—chores day and night. This boredom to bicycles activity is simply a waste of rabbit efficiency. No, no, no this won’t do. Joe shakes his head in disapproval and retreats to the place where old men rabbits like to chat about the silly behaviors of modern rabbits.