“CHI RHO Rudolph”

This project was in my mind for years. I wanted to make a realistic looking Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. There was no actual reference photo so I had to make it up from several different photos. I used 7+ different referrence photos to make this painting. Many of the photos were of the Reindeer of the Sámi, the traditionally Sámi-speaking Indigenous peoples inhabiting northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and of the Kola Peninsula in Russia.

One of the details I added to the headstall was the Chi Rho symbol after my brother taught me about it. It is a Christian symbol that is made up of the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ, chi (Χ) and rho (Ρ), superimposed on top of each other. Chi Rho is one of the oldest Christograms, or symbols of Christ, and is used to represent Christ, Christianity, and Christians