It was no surprise to walk into the Modern Huntsman Art Director’s home studio and find her with a paint brush and knife in one hand, adjusting freshly shucked oysters on a table with the other, and surrounded by canvases with growing still lifes. As one of the publisher’s leading illustrators, it’s a common scene to find Caris Fawcett in the field, on the road, or at home surrounded by art supplies and freshly foraged food or hunted game. A woman who lives her work out loud, Caris’ ability to capture the depth of the outdoors in pencil, watercolor and oil paint can only be found by someone who immerses themselves in their subjects. Her intimate knowledge of color and light are most recently felt in The Modern Huntsman Cookbook– an oil painting that lives framed in green leather and cream linen on the cover of a book celebrating meals made and earned in wild places. Over an evening of shucking oysters, Contributing Editor Chelsea Rosson chatted with one of Texas’ most beloved artists about her process to create the cover for Modern Huntsman’s first cookbook.

Caris Fawcett: To create that scene and to take people there, to take them into that moment, it’s just such a beautiful process. I’m so inspired by the French and American Masters that recreate those scenes. We can showcase all of these animals in their natural habitat. We can showcase food on the table. We can showcase how to make the recipes too. Storytelling– there’s just something else there when you’re able to transport the person to the actual scene. It’s something that hunters are aware of and reminiscent of.

The whole cookbook is celebrating the story of connecting with food from start to finish. Whether you are somebody who likes to hunt their own food, someone who likes to cook over an open fire, or you just like to find sustainable ways in your community to source this food — the goal was to showcase the beauty that can happen in every step of the process.

Usually, you’re waking up early to go out on a hunt. Sometimes you’re up at four or five in the morning and often times the ready room where you have your boots and shotgun waiting, everything ready to go so you can just throw it on and head out to the field. I’ve always found that whole scene before the hunt a beautiful thing. You know, you’re a little bit groggy, but then you go outside, you get to watch the sunrise and everything just feels calm and peaceful. Maybe you’re lucky enough to bring back some food for the table, maybe not, but it’s the small moments that make up a larger experience.

This particular piece is obviously indicative of a successful hunt, with the beautiful yet elusive ruffed grouse. This was styled and shot in Minnesota, at a good friend’s lodge– Bowen Lodge –  where I had Tyler Sharp, our lovely Modern Huntsman Editor-in-Chief, help set up, stage and photograph a scene after a day of hunting grouse with Jens Heig.

I think it’s a really different approach to such a unique cookbook as well. You know, we’re so used to seeing fully cooked food on the front of a cookbook. Instead, this is the food before it gets cooked, but it’s also the entire journey before that.

Chelsea Rosson: That makes me think of the multiple realities of cooking what you hunt and forage. And not just the process of cooking at this level, but the process of painting at this level. We just talked about the narrative that you developed before you began painting. Talk to me about the narrative that came into existence for you while you were painting. To create such an intricate scene like this is not for the faint of heart.

CF: I think this piece took easily over a hundred hours. It was certainly a journey. It’s oil paint on a wood panel, really incredible when you’re working with a natural material that already has this beautiful wood grain. Through the background, I was able to pick up these patterns that already exist in nature, which helped really bring a flow to the piece. That and a lot of little brush strokes.

It was a very, very tedious process that required countless hours and some of  the tiniest paintbrushes you can purchase- mostly brushes that were under ⅛’’. If you’re up close and personal with it, you’re not really going to see large brush strokes. My goal was to capture each and every little detail.

The most fascinating thing about painting is when an artist brings in colors and layers that a viewer wouldn’t normally see. My job is to pull out those subtle tones. Are there hints of blue? Are there hints of yellow or purple?

Even though this is a very earth-toned painting—the question was, how do I bring this to reality? How do I make the natural reality pop a little bit more? Just like we see with different environments, there’s so much that exists beneath that surface and within the layers of ecosystems.

What I was hunting for, when creating this painting, was all of those subtle colors, all of these little details of brush strokes that start to work together.

CR: I love that. Talk to me about some of those challenges that you hit and how you managed pivoting throughout the piece.

CF: I hopped around a lot on this piece. Sometimes I’ll focus square inch by square inch and finish a painting like that. For this one, I would spend a day working on the gun, then I would hop over and work on the birds a little bit, and then I’d get very frustrated with those feathers because that might be one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to paint.

How the grouse are hanging is a different way than most people are used to viewing birds. You know, we’re used to seeing a bird either with its wings right up against its body or outstretched flying. And so it’s learning a different anatomy fighting against gravity when you’re painting a dead mount like that. That was definitely a big challenge.

It’s always tough as a painter because the first 20% you generally hate. You start a painting and start thinking, can I actually do this? You have to convince yourself the next hundred hours of your life are going to be worth it to, to bring it all into fruition. I had a couple mental blocks along the way, especially with the birds. But I was able to put it all together and I’m more than pleased with it.

And if anything, I think it photographed almost a little too well, because it’s tough to tell that it’s actually a painting on the cover.

CF: I hopped around a lot on this piece. Sometimes I focus square inch by square inch and finish a painting like that. For this one, I would spend a day working on the gun, then I would hop over and work on the birds a little bit, and then I’d get very frustrated with those feathers because that might be one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to paint.

How the grouse are hanging is a different way than most people are used to viewing birds. You know, we’re used to seeing a bird either with its wings right up against its body or outstretched flying. And so it was learning a different anatomy and fighting against gravity when you’re painting a dead mount like that. That was definitely a big challenge.

It’s always tough as a painter because the first 20% you generally hate. You start a painting and start thinking, can I actually do this? You have to convince yourself the next hundred hours of your life are going to be worth it to, to bring it all into fruition. I had a couple mental blocks along the way, especially with the birds. But I was able to put it all together and I’m more than pleased with it.

And if anything, I think it photographed almost a little too well, because it’s tough to tell that it’s actually a painting on the cover.

CR: I love this detail you just gave, you said there’s this moment where you have hope for the rest of the painting, even though you know what it’s going to be like, barely 20% of the way in. What gives you hope in continuing and what are some of the challenges that you feel really proud of overcoming through this particular piece?

CF: I’ve been painting for many, many years. I think I really started painting when I was 14, 15. I attended SCAD and studied painting there. Technically over half my life now? I haven’t necessarily been regularly in the studio. I’d say that’s been more of the past couple of years. A lot of these opportunities came through Modern Huntsman—all which have really reinvigorated my love for painting, especially with wildlife.

With anything, you’re going to go through that rollercoaster of emotions. I start putting stuff on there, I start to doubt myself. Then it starts looking a little bit better. And then I’m like, “I hate it.” And then all of a sudden, once you hit about the 50% mark, you trick your brain into being like, “there’s something to put forth. It’s going to be all worth it in the end.”

A big shout out to Tyler too, because he’s one of those people who encourages me to do more. He helps find interesting things. You know, if I’m out camping, I’m going to start picking up blades of grass, looking at rocks, feeling the textures, pulling out the colors, obsessed with all the details, the leaves, the feathers, whatever it might be. I’ve always been a collector in that sense. I’ve got vases full of feathers, jars full or snail shells, large pieces of bark on my shelves. Nature’s collectibles as I call them. I think that’s always been something that’s pushed me, noticing those small details that I don’t think a lot of people really take the time to look at.

And since I have the skill to paint it, I want to show people, I want to celebrate what happens under the microscope if you’re willing to take a look.

Sometimes there’s additional learning and adjusting and balancing there. For instance, the shoes, the Russell Moccasins–I absolutely love those. They didn’t take that long at all. I just happened to put the paint down the first try. While there were many other layers for other portions, that one really came together quite quickly. Knowing when to stop is sometimes the biggest challenge, especially when you’re doing a really detailed piece.

CR: How do you make that call? How do you know when the piece is done? Is it because there’s no other option?

CF: Absolutely. I have always struggled with that ever since I was a kid. Asking myself, when is it done? I always used to joke that my paintings are only 90% complete because there’s always something that I would want to change with them.

CR: Do you think without a deadline, that narrative would read true for you? For every painting you do?

CF: I’m coming to terms with the fact that even though I don’t necessarily see it as done, that everybody else does.

I could technically go in and add details forever on anything, on any piece. But at a certain point you start to lose the vision of the piece and you start to make things look muddier and you start detracting from other key details. You know, if everything is detailed, in focus, is anything really that special?

CR: Oh, that’s a really fascinating perspective. Have you ever had a painting that you weren’t forced, a deadline like this, where you felt like you were able to stop and say, I feel like this is done because, uh, the perspective needs it to be done. Or do you find without a deadline, you just keep going?

CF: You know, a lot of times I will keep going, but I’ve been trying to build in mental deadlines too. I’m training my brain and training my eye to look at something and say, wow, that looks really good. I think I’m done with it. If I don’t walk away from one piece, I’ll never be able to start the next.

I have to realize that I’ve trained this far to get good at painting and being good is also understanding that you’ve got to keep making, you can’t just make one painting and call yourself a painter. You’ve got to keep doing it. That’s my drive right now, to keep pushing, going more into wildlife art, but also exploring some of my own creative visions, exploring style, challenging myself. This piece in particular was an extra challenge because I’ve always loved this classical French style painting and I had done some still lifes like that back in school but I haven’t done anything like that in over 10 years.

You know, I would love to explore more of those scenes, especially as we take it through different hunting seasons. You know, maybe there’s a fishing version of it. Maybe there’s some bigger game in there, antlers and sheds. I definitely think there’s an opportunity to expand here. But in the meantime I’m going to opt for some slightly larger brushes and some bigger brush strokes beyond an eighth of an inch.

CR:. How many brushes did you use for this piece?

CF: Probably 10-12 but it’s hard to say.

I kind of just pick ’em up as I see fit. I’m a messy painter, not just in the fact that everything gets messy around me, but in the sense that I’m really bad at switching out my brushes from color to color. So a lot of my approach is that I will take one brush and I’ll paint with it for several hours without swapping it out for another one- just kind of mixing the paint as I go. So I might start with a really light color then start moving over into a darker color. Rinse it off a little bit, do another color. Sometimes I use the same brush for an entire session.

It’s allowed me to kind of build up my own style– the way that I mix colors. I’m a watercolor painter as well, and typically with that watercolor you’re using one size brush at a time too. The habit from there is starting with a larger brush, doing a big wash, and then adding in the detail. Obviously watercolor will rinse off your brush a little bit easier, so it’s slightly different. But it’s kind of like that approach that I take with this painting for the cookbook cover is starting with the bigger brush for the under layers and then going to a smaller brush.

CR: So for the cookbook cover, what were the initial thoughts on setting up the scene?

CF: Tyler did the whole thing, while up at Bowen Lodge, while I was on the phone with him helping set the scene. We wanted to capture it with end of the day, evening light, so we had to plan for hard shadows.

Jens Heig (the Bowen Lodge owner) was holding up bedsheets and trying to help with the reflector so we could both have the light but not lose all the details in the setting sun.

It was a really interesting joint effort to help direct a photo shoot that you’re not even at and a great exercise for Tyler and I to work together on that. You know, we’ve done shoots together before where I’ve helped style, but this was the first time I was remote styling. He executed the vision perfectly. We only had to do minor edits to the photo for color, to really capture that end of day warmth. But other than that, it was perfectly ready to go. It was exactly what I was picturing. It’s inspired by the American painter, Richard La Barre Goodwin, from the 1800s who did these hunting wildlife scenes.

I wanted to really focus on beautiful elements in nature and on all the different ingredients and elements that it takes to source our food.

Aside from the cookbook cover, I wanted to really focus on beautiful elements in nature and on all the different ingredients and elements that it takes to source our food.

There was a recipe that talked about ducks and fresh citrus and all I could think about were beautiful fresh oranges to pair along with it. I created a whole scene of oranges spread out on a table, freshly sliced and ready to be added to the dish.

I don’t work with such vibrant colors normally. A lot of my work is wildlife; not necessarily like pink flowers, usually a bit grittier, a lot of birds and such. They have a lot of browns and blacks in them, maybe a touch of color. So the oranges were really one of the first pieces where color was the predominant portion of it. In addition there were some pencil sketches with Jesse Griffiths’ section—you know, whether it’s on your chopping block or you see the fish swimming in the stream, you get these beautiful colors and light glistening off of the scales. I wanted to capture that for his piece, which becomes an additional challenge when you’re using just a pencil.

CR: Do you have particular scenes you enjoy doing with pencil versus oil or watercolor?

CF: I think I’m still figuring out a lot of that. I am on the road a lot, hunting, traveling for my job, traveling with Modern Huntsman. So in those instances, pencil and watercolor are going to prevail just because they’re easy. I have tried packing up my easel and oils to take with me on the road on a long road trip before, but truly not the easiest thing unless you’re in the same spot for a while.

Ultimately it just comes down to where I am when I’m working on the piece. For the cookbook cover, it was all done at my home studio.

I’m definitely interested in traveling more while painting, but in those instances I think I want to take more of a naturalist experimental approach. For instance, I’ve always wanted to take a canvas and dip it in a river and see how the water changes that. Maybe play with using sand and dirt on the canvas to get natural textures, and then use that as a basis for the paintings.

This whole opportunity to work on the cookbook put a lot of confidence into me as an artist. I had studied painting but hadn’t really painted for a while. You know, just life happens and it’s really been something I’ve picked up again in the past two years. This cookbook really brought breath back into my work, really encouraged me to keep going.

Now I’m painting at least once a week, usually multiple times. As we speak, I’ve got four canvases covered in outlines of oysters, florals and base colors that I’m simultaneously working on at the same time.

With my full time job, I work with textiles almost everyday, pulling patterns, pulling inspiration from vintage textiles. A lot of them end up being slightly repeating patterns. So as I work on this new oyster series, I’m going to be integrating that love of patterns. With the purpose and idea of eventually creating a wallpaper.

I think with this I’m moving a lot more into realism and I’m going to think about how there’s an intersection between that and contemporary elements in my future work.

I’ve been working in the design field for almost 10 years and just like with anything, you start to get a little burnt out if you’re doing that all day. I’ve figured out how painting actually reinvigorates me and I get excited to design during the day and paint at night.

With the cookbook, I’m excited that people are going to have this on their shelves, but . I wish people could see the actual painting because there’s so much more detail.

You know, on the gun case alone, I was painting the individual threads that sewed it together. There’s all these little tiny details that somebody could get lost in. I’m excited to see prints of the painting that will give folks the opportunity to enjoy that level of detail. Get ready to buy a print at modernhuntsman.com soon!