fkb1181

I use a bear puppet when doing appearances as Santa to work with children. The puppets help smaller children be less afraid of meeting me (Santa).

The puppet's name is Grizz.

This was done as part of my train series. It is a Baldwin locomotive (#7) from Hill City, SD, 1880s Train. Santa and Sidekick decorate a train for Christmas. The constellation Leo is in the stars, the number of the engine has been changed to 25 (Can you figure out why?).

fkb1215

This was supposed to have been just a study for FKB1212 "Christmas Train" but I got so involved and was having so much fun with it that I kept working on it. Standing next to me is Grizz (See FKB1181 Santa with Grizz), who has now come to life.

Sidekick
Sidekick is a little white dog that appears in a number of Falstaff's Christmas paintings.

"Santa with Sidekick"
Acrylic 30x24"

fkb1217

"Comfort for a Friend: Santa with Log Cabin Quilt and Sidekick

fkb1238

These paintings celebrate Christmas in the heartland of America. I wanted to do a series of paintings using symbols of the plains. As I live in South Dakota the use of symbols relating to the Lakota was a logical choice.

Prairie Christmas and Christmas Heartbeat celebrate generosity of Plains Indians. In South Dakota, where I live there are many Lakota, some of whom live on the reservations, but many others live off reservation. Generosity is highly valued among them so I made a pair of paintings, one for female gift giving and the other male gift giving.

"Prairie Christmas" has Santa with a coat decorated with porcupine quills, "Christmas Heartbeat" has bead decoration. Quilts with the star pattern are a common gift made by the Indians.

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For information about paintings and photography by Franz Brown go to Main Franz Brown home page
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