Polar Bear Wall Art

Polar Bear Wall Art Up Close

Decide where people will actually stand before you decide anything else, because this subject is white on white and its quality lives in detail you can only see from a couple of paces. Close up, a good image gives you wet nose leather, the yellow-cream cast of the coat against genuinely blue-white snow, individual guard hairs catching the light. From the far side of a large room the same picture becomes a pale blob on a pale ground. A hallway, a stair landing or the wall behind a dining table all put the viewer near enough to get the value.

Contrast separates the good examples from the rest. Snow scenes carry almost no dark tone, so the picture has to earn its structure from the shadow under the animal's belly, the black eyes and nose, and any break in the ice. Where those anchors are missing, the print looks washed out on the wall even though it looked fine on a bright screen. Wall colour matters for the same reason. White or very pale paint gives the animal nothing to sit against, and the edges of the image dissolve into the wall. Grey-blue, deep teal, warm greige and charcoal all hold it in place. If repainting is not on the table, a darker piece of furniture underneath does some of the same job.

There is a mood question worth facing. A bear on broken ice carries an obvious environmental reading, and plenty of people find that heavy in a bedroom or a child's room. A tight portrait, a mother with cubs, or an animal simply walking reads warmer, while a lone bear on a shrinking floe is an argument you will keep having with yourself.

Try this before ordering. View the image at full screen, then get up and back away until you reach your intended viewing distance. Whatever you can still see from there is what you are buying, and everything finer than that is detail you have paid for and will never look at.